\v\

WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

THE DIMOCK BOOKS

Book of the Tarpon — 93 illustrations; 8y2x
5y3 inches $2.00

Flobida Enchantments — 135 illustrations;
9%x6Vfe inches 2.00

Be Prepared — A story for Boy Scouts — 8
illustrations; 7y2x5y2 inches 1.00

Dick in the Everglades — 32 illustrations;
71/2x51/2 inches 1.25

Dick Among the Lumber-jacks — 32 illus-
trations; 71/3x51/2 inches 1.25

Dick Among the Seminoles — 15 illustra-
tions ; 7y2x5% inches 1.25

Dick Among the Miners — 8 illustrations;

7%x5y2 inches 1.25

Outdoor Photography — By Julian A. Di-
mock, 13 illustrations; 7x5 inches .70

Photograph by Emlyn M. Gill

Our trout are educated and coy to a degree that baffles my

most wary approach.

See 'page 464-

WALL STREET

AND

THE WILDS

BY

A. W. DIMOCK

Author of "The Book of the Tarpon," "Florida
Enchantments," etc.

NEW YORK
OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY

MCMXV

]

v/

10

I n I

THE NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY

709859

ASTOR, LENOX AND

TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

R 1915 L

Copyright, 1915, by
OUTING PUBLISHING COMPANY

All rights reserved.

TO

COL. WILLIAM C. CHURCH

WHO BY SUGGESTING THE WRITING

OF THIS BOOK BECAME ITS

GODFATHER

v.

•

r * •
* «

» * '

< •

t • • •

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I Fun and Finance of Boyhood . . . . 11

II First Days in Wall Street . . . . .32

III War Time and Gold 57

IV Business or Gambling . 74

V Market Manipulation 88

VI The First Corner in Currency . . . .110

VII " I've Sold the Treasury Dry! _ . 128

VIII A Wall Street Pool 148

IX In the Saddle Again 159

X Bubbles 176

XI Steamships and Subsidies 206

XII From the Street to the Wilds . . . 232

XIII Camping with Comanches 251

XIV Historic Indian Councils 269

XV Buffalo and Duck Shooting .... 287

XVI Physics and Philosophy . , 309

XVII The Call of the Street 323

XVIII Rise and Fall of the Bankers and Mer-
chants 342

XIX Courts and Corruption 363

XX Mining Camps and Dynamite .... 385

XXI Hunting and Prospecting in the Rockies 399

XXII An Encounter with a Grizzly . . . 419

XXIII Photographing Wild Life 439

XXIV The Happy Valley 455

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Our trout are educated and coy . . . (Page

Jf.6J/.} Frontispiece

FACING
PAGE

Anthony W. Dimock at eighteen 16

A Florida Seminole family 32

Seminole children in the Big Cypress 48

The beam from the bulls eye lantern charms the reptile 64

First photograph of a living Florida crocodile ... 80

"Catch 'em when they're not looking/' said Joe Jeffer-
son {page 450) 96

"We set up our lodge in the wilderness" {page 385) 112

"I spent all the time I could at the cabin" {page 385) 128

"Always my heart warmed toward the beautiful chil-
dren of the wild" {page £53) 144

"There isn't any real danger in clinging to a manatee"

{page 460) 160

"I took my camera shot from a distance of forty feet"

{page 447) 176

Palmetto camp {page Jf-59) 192

"Our wagon was once struck by lightning" . . . 208

"The tern that left her flock to perch on my finger"

{page 453) 224

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING
PAGE

Dick Washakie, Crown Prince of the Shoshones

(page J^2S) 240

"It is forty years since I saw the Blue Hole/' said

John Burroughs (page Jf68) 256

Camp Beaver (page £37) 272

"I sent a bullet through the brain . . ." (page JfJf2) 288

"We spent a week with a colony of birds" (page 1/-56) 304

We were friends of the creatures of the wild

(page Jf55) 320

At Charley Tiger Tail's camp 336

The squaw complained that the trader was upside down 352

When a hooked tarpon wrecked my canoe (page Jf60) 368

Navajo children caring for their flocks 376

A call reached me from Dr. Homoday for more pelicans 392

A Navajo hogan in Arizona 400

"The talk around the campfire was of prospects, of

mines" 416

"Julian always wanted human interest" .... 432

"I carried my camera within ten feet of the fiercely

growling creature" (page JfJf6) 448

"In the winter they coast and wallow through the

drifts" (page Jf.67) 456

Sylvia's Rock 464

WALL STREET AND
THE WILDS

CHAPTER I

FUN AND FINANCE OF BOYHOOD

There were stirring times in Wall Street
some fifty years ago. It was the nerve centre
of the nation, and the rise and fall of the peo-
ple's hopes were measured by the price of gold.
Every battle of the Civil War had its counter-
part in the Street, though victory meant only
money, and defeat but the wreck of fortune.
My heart beats yet at the thought of those tri-
umphs and tragedies, for of them I may truly
say, pars fui, if not magna pars fui.

Memory paints pictures of ambitious projects
and large ventures by land and sea, of the exul-
tation of success and the black horror of failure,

11

12 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

but now they seem almost unreal in the peace of
my mountain home.

In these quiet surroundings I cast my dry-fly
on the waters, and as I play the elusive trout
I smile, recalling the excitements of other days
when I ran buffaloes with Comanches, hunted
grizzlies with Shoshones, crocodiles and mana-
tees with Seminoles, cruising and camping
among other creatures and peoples of the wild.

Time which dulls all other memories illumi-
nates the faces of the many friends I have made
and hold in close fellowship, whether they look
upon me from the spirit world, gather by my
fireside, or wander with me along the streams
of the Happy Valley. It is from such friends
that the call came for this story.

Where shall I begin? Shall it be when my
youthful feet first pressed the pavement of that
wonderland of Wall Street? Or shall I com-
mence where my education began, according to
Dr. Holmes, some centuries before I was born
and tell of an unbroken line of ministers of the
gospel and of their pay in whippings, jail sen-

FUN AND FINANCE OF BOYHOOD 13

tences, and banishment when they persisted in
preaching the faith that was in them?

My earliest recollections are of New England
villages where my father preached. I remem-
ber how munificent the salary of three hundred
dollars a year and a donation party seemed to
me. Ah, those donation parties! I shudder
now at my memory of them. They were occa-
sions of feasting and festivity, when the larder
overflowed with pies and pumpkins, cakes and
cabbages. Often clothing was given, not too
much worn, and before any one got away the
hat was passed amid exhortations to liberality.
I recall the patronizing pleasure with which my
playmates showed me their pennies as they
dropped them into the hat, and that an hour
later I was found in the dark closet, where I had
sobbed myself to sleep.

While yet little more than a child, I contrib-
uted a trifle to the family purse, and could to-
day seat a cane-bottomed chair, or braid and
bleach a palm leaf hat, finishing it on the water-
driven, steam-heated machinery for pressing it.

14. WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

I made lucifer matches before "phossy jaw"
was discovered, but the longest job of the many
at which I worked, was making patent clothes
pins. Payment was to be by the piece, and I
competed earnestly with my nearest friend,
whose bench was beside mine. He was the bet-
ter workman, and though I gave my mind to
eliminating every waste motion, I only averted
defeat by an hour of secret work each morning
before the factory was known to be open.
When years later I explained to my friend the
method by which I had won out, he told me that
I had cleared up the one mystery of his life.

My experience in that shop made a socialist
of me, though I didn't call it by that name then,
for while the product of the shop sold well, my
employer kept the cash and I never received a
penny of wage. The loss sombered my spirits
for a time, but a later philosophy taught me that
my boyish romanticism had given me the joy
of embarking the lost money in at least fifteen
silly schemes.

But they were not all work, those early days.

FUN AND FINANCE OF BOYHOOD 15

I remember when it happened that a warm
spring rain, falling on the accumulated snow of
winter, was followed by a zero temperature, and
a condition arose which no native could resist.
The whole face of nature was one glare of ice.
The spirit of the Creole possessed the descend-
ant of the Puritan, and work was forgotten
while the carnival lasted. Boys put on skates;
men, matrons, and maids got out shovels and
pans if other means were wanting. Some of
the younger women and girls treated the pans
as snowshoes and began their coast standing up-
right upon them. This method was not usually
approved by their mothers, who claimed that sit-
ting down in the pan while coasting was less
likely to lead to unladylike results. Another
objection to the employment of this form of
snowshoe in coasting was the impossibility of
guiding it, and its habit of spinning around like
a tee-to-tum was embarrassing to the occupant,
although it gave joy to the spectators. The
masculine equivalent of the milkpan was the
barn-shovel. The coaster sat upon the shovel

16 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

with its handle projecting in front of him and
his feet resting lightly upon the crust.

Momus was the god of the day, and everybody
laughed at everybody else until everybody else
got a chance to laugh at him. The whole popu-
lation made for the meadow on the hillside, on
the undulating surface of which could be found
every degree of inclination, from a gentle decline
that would fail to feaze the most timid, to a long,
sharp pitch, the swift descent of which would
create friction sufficient to melt the milk-pan be-
neath the adventurous woman who braved it.

Already I was interested in the wild life of the
great outdoors. I must have been ten years old
when I began my life as a trapper. Before that
I used to wander in the woods back of my home
in a little village of Massachusetts. I remember
my fearsome steps through the dark recesses be-
neath the heavy foliage of the great close-grow-
ing pines. I walked slowly, shivering in antici-
pation of what I was seeking — the loud whir of
the startled partridge, as the ruffed grouse was
called. Soon I was following the paths of the

Anthony W. Dimock at eighteen, just beginning his finan-
cial career in New York.

JCLIB

UT«R. |.f M«)

FUN AND FINANCE OF BOYHOOD 17

partridge through the woods and setting across
them the old-fashioned twitchup snares.

Sometimes other things than partridges got
in my snares. Occasionally a rabbit was caught,
and once I found my own little dog in one. His
weight would have broken the snare but for the
elasticity of the sapling to which it was fastened.
I often thought of him in later years, when play-
ing a big trout with a fly-rod and a line that
wouldn't have borne his weight.

When winter came I waded through the snow
in the same woods and studied the many tracks,
from the tiny footprints of a mouse, squirrel, or
cottontail rabbit to the trail of a great white
hare, so big that a cow might have made it. In
the most beaten path I placed a box trap of my
own construction, but of orthodox make, of the
pattern known to boys since the days of Nimrod.
It was baited with a slice of apple or part of
an ear of corn, and dawn often found me peer-
ing through the gloom beneath the pines to see
if the trap were sprung. If it were, I lifted the
door of the trap just a little, and with my eyes

18 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

close to the crack tried to make out what manner
of beast was inside. If it were either a little rab-
bit or a big hare I opened the door of the trap
wide enough to allow my hand and arm to be
thrust inside and soon had Bunny safely by
the legs.

Sometimes instead of a rabbit there was a fly-
ing squirrel in the trap, and occasionally a
red one. These little creatures resented being
handled, so I put the trap on my sled and car-
ried it home, taking it to my room before open-
ing it. In a few days the squirrels were tame
enough to wander about the house, and after a
little refused to be driven away. The hares and
rabbits were colonized in the woodshed, and day
by day my menagerie grew.

At first my parents applauded my success,
and even commented proudly upon it to the
neighbors. Later they became ominously silent
on the subject, and after an investigating red
quirrel had upset a bottle of ink on my father's
desk and, having waded through a puddle of the
liquid, tramped over the sheets of a sermon pre-

FUN AND FINANCE OF BOYHOOD 19

pared for the following Sabbath, the outer door
was opened to the mischief-maker. That made
little difference for, like the cat, the creature
came back.

The family in the woodshed grew, and I was
making almost daily additions to it when an in-
cident occurred that broke up the whole business.
I visited my trap earlier than usual one morning,
when it was too dark to tell with certainty what
kind of creature it contained. I could see that
it was too large for a squirrel and, assuming it
to be a rabbit, I opened the door of the trap and
seized the animal by its legs. I started hastily
for home, where I found myself persona non
grata, although those may not have been the
exact words used at the time to describe my con-
dition. I believe my clothing was buried, and
I think there was a general feeling of regret that
the same treatment could not be extended to me.
I do remember that my father hitched up the
horse and took the rest of the family to visit a
parishioner at the other end of the town.

It was in childhood that finance also began to

20 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

exercise its fascination over me. I must have
been a thorn in the flesh to my father through
my interminable questions, but he answered with
infinite patience. The first of his brief lectures
on the subject related to commercial credit, and
was occasioned by his discovery among the par-
cels he had brought from the village store of a
package of powder and another of shot. It was
disclosed that I had given the order, and when
called to account I explained that I had told the
store-keeper to charge them.

"But don't you know that when things are
charged, they have to be paid for sometime?"
asked my father.

"I knew you paid sometimes, but I thought
when he charged things he gave them to you be-
cause you bought so many things of him," was
my earnest reply. Father laughed at that, but
when he saw the tears in my eyes he soothed my
bruised feelings with his kindly talk.

"Coming events cast their shadows before,"
and my interest in my father's teachings of the

FUN AND FINANCE OF BOYHOOD 21

use of the precious metals as measures of value,
and the province of paper in its relation thereto,
may have been prophetic of the career toward
which I was tending. Most firmly fixed in my
mind was the fact that a bank bill was merely
a token, representative of the specie that must
always stand ready for its redemption.

Fate favored me with an opportunity to test
the theory which had so profoundly interested
me. I was one of a party from the Sunday
school in my father's church to go on an excur-
sion to the nearby town of Fitchburg. Father
handed me a one-dollar bill as I left home, and
told me that I might spend twenty-five cents of
it. This was truly to me a munificent sum, and
the possession of the bill made me feel like a cap-
italist. As I was walking alone on a Fitchburg
street I saw a sign on the building opposite,
"The Rollstone Bank."

That was the bank which had issued the bill
I held in my hand, and a great opportunity had
come to me. I crossed the street and entered

22 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

the bank. Slapping my one-dollar bill hard
down upon a counter which was just level with
my eyes, I shouted:

"I demand specie!"

Specie didn't come — at once — but there was
a gathering behind that counter while spectacled
eyes looked down upon me. I don't remember
what was said, but I knew the moment was big
with fate, and I felt that I was another Samson
with my arms around the pillars of a modern
temple of Dagon. I was distinctly disappointed
when the teller finally pushed within reach of
my hand four Spanish pillar quarter dollars.

In the families of the country clergy of that
day the possibility of meat upon the table was
open to discussion, but that the boys of the fam-
ily must be sent to an academy was seldom ques-
tioned. I don't like to think to-day of the in-
roads made on the slender family purse by my
years later at Andover. In after years I lav-
ished mere money in return, but could never feel
that I had reduced that sacred debt.

FUN AND FINANCE OF BOYHOOD 23

Wall Street had been to me a name to conjure
with like "Sesame" of Ali Baba, but at Andover
I made friends in the flesh of those who spoke
of it familiarly and flippantly as of ordinary
mundane existence. Yet when one of them told
me of a broker he knew who had made as much
as a hundred dollars in a single day I would have
advised him to join the Ananias Club, if that fa-
mous organization had then existed.

I entered Phillips Academy in September,
1856, a few days before Uncle Sam Taylor re-
turned from his six months' crusade to the Holy
Land. I promptly presented my credentials,
and then learned, what my fellow alumni may
not credit, that beneath that austere exterior
throbbed a heart filled with human sympathy.
During our symposium as we discussed what the
Carolina Governors were going to say to one an-
other, Uncle Sam produced a bottle and urged
me to drink freely. He assured me that the bot-
tle contained the oldest known beverage and that
he had himself filled it from the Dead Sea.

24 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

For a time I shared a room in the Latin Com-
mons with Flavius Josephus Cook of Ticon-
deroga, New York. Later he cut down his pon-
derous name, and became the Rev. Joseph Cook
of Boston, but his ponderous mind stayed by
him. He was the pride and the puzzle of the
school, and I could to-day repeat much of his fa-
mous oration, "The Truth Teller," the delivery
of which so prolonged a session of the Philoma-
thean Society that Uncle Sam rose from his bed
and came over to the old stone academy to ad-
journ the meeting with invective.

With Wm. P. Alcott, Cook founded the Eu-
reka, or Hygeian, popularly known as the Hy-
ena Club. Of this my mother wrote to me, "I
don't like your new club. Peanuts and prunes
are not proper food for growing boys."

Alcott wrote in my autograph book, "Let us
live for eternity, Wm. P. Alcott," and if the club
had lasted a few weeks longer he would have had
us all there.

Cook covered a page in that autograph book
with,

FUN AND FINANCE OF BOYHOOD 25

THE PROBLEM OF LIFE

Let X equal the amount of happiness one can

enjoy.
Let Y equal one's activity in doing good.
Let Z equal aid from above."

Then followed two equations from which I
was expected to tree three unknown quantities.

Cook's memory was marvelous. When I
parted from him at Andover, I said:

"Some day I shall hear of you. I wonder
whether you are going to make a spoon or
spoil a horn."

Twenty years later I was passing a hall in
New York from which a lecture audience
was pouring, and I saw Cook's name on a poster.
I found him inside and, holding out my hand,
said:

"Can you send your mind back twenty years,
Mr. Cook?"

"Which have I done?" was his quick reply.

He had an appointment to meet me at my of-
fice to accompany me home, and his manner of

26 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

announcing himself was a joy to the office for
weeks. He walked to the cashier's window, and
in the deepest tones of his booming voice, made
announcement and inquiry:

"I am the Reverend Joseph Cook! I am
right, am I not?"

That night he lectured in Elizabeth, and as
after the lecture we walked toward home, he in-
quired :

"How did you like the lecture?"

"It was wonderful. I wouldn't have thought
it possible to build up so strong an argument on
the subject."

"What impressed you most?"

"I was most impressed by the radiant counte-
nances of my too-orthodox friends as you piled
Pelion on Ossa of proof of the impossibility of
repentance after death."

Cook didn't like that, for he had no more sense
of humor than a tombstone. I gave him another
shock when I showed him the problem he had
placed on a page of my autograph book and
said:

FUN AND FINANCE OF BOYHOOD 27

"You seem to have solved all the problems of
life."

"Too many unknown quantities for the equa-
tions in that one," was his comment.

"But you don't need the third one," I replied.

Samuel Phillips Newman Smyth cut his name
in two when he became Dr. Newman Smyth.
In my book he expressed the wish that I might
make as many friends in the world as I had se-
cured among my classmates and that I might be
similarly popular in the world to come. He pru-
dently clothed the latter sentiment in the form
of a prayer instead of a prophecy.

I enjoyed a slight acquaintance with Profes-
sor Phelps of the Theological Seminary, and re-
member the somewhat reserved young girl whom
the world later knew so well as Elizabeth Stuart
Phelps.

My school education ended at Andover,
though I studied the classics for a year under a
Yale man and made some progress in advanced
mathematics, for which I had some natural apti-
tude.

28 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

At length the day arrived for which all pre-
vious days had existed, and I went to Jersey City
to visit a relative who was employed by a firm
of brokers in the magic city of golden streets.

A few days later I was taken to the corner of
Wall and William Streets, and presented to
Henry G. Marquand, who in less than six years
was to be my partner, although it is doubtful if
he apprehended it at the time. There may be
in store for me an occasion of greater embarrass-
ment than when I stood before him for judg-
ment, but it is difficult to anticipate it. My
nervousness was patent but was quickly allayed
by the kindly smile which never failed to greet
me during all the years of employment and part-
nership that followed. He asked me a question
in simple addition, and I replied so quickly that
he fired a harder one at me:

"How much is forty-five times forty-five?"
and there was no interval between his question
and my answer.

There was genuine surprise in his face as he
motioned to the desk beside me on which were

i?UN AND FINANCE OF BOYHOOD 29

pens, ink, and paper, and told me to write down
figures as he gave them to me. When I had
written perhaps a dozen digits he told me to mul-
tiply the number by one hundred and twenty-
five, and I wrote the result as fast as I could put
down the figures.

"How did you multiply so quickly?'" he asked.

"I didn't multiply; I divided by eight."

"How did you multiply forty-five by forty-
five?"

"I multiplied the first figure by a number
larger by one and suffixed twenty-five. That's
the short way to square a number that ends with
five. You have been giving me easy ones, sir.

"Looks as if they might all be easy to you,
was said with a smile that made me think I had
passed my examination. But the smile faded
when he saw my handwriting, which I have not
even yet succeeded in licking into symmetry.

"I think we can work together," said he, and
I can bring on an attack of goose-flesh to-day by
recalling the rioting of my verdant imagination
in the fraction of a minute that followed. I

>j

?5

30 WALL STREET AND THE WILD 3

didn't know the writers of books as I know them
now, and my faith that they understood what
thev talked about was childlike and bland. I
knew what happened to good boys in the great
city when employers recognized their merits. I
saw before me an invitation to house and home,
a salary that might touch four figures and the
promise of a partnership at the end of the year.

Even now my hand shrinks from recording
the rest of the dream, for oh, I was a goose!
When in later years I talked with imaginative
youth from the employer's standpoint, the mem-
ory of my own foolish dream often shattered the
demeanor that should preserve the perspective
between employer and employed. Mr. Mar-
quand's next words punctured the iridescent bub-
ble my fancy had blown.

"I expected to pay a boy a dollar, but I will
make your wages a dollar and a half a week."

Gone was the golden dream, vanished the
Aladdin palace, for I had no thought of refusing
the offer. Indeed, in my punctured pride I
wondered if I could be worth even a dollar a week

FUN AND FINANCE OF BOYHOOD SI

to anybody. The thought that cut deepest was
that I must break the promise I had made my-
self, that of every dollar I earned fifty cents
should go into the family purse at home. First
I had to face the problem of living, but my rela-
tives solved that for me by offering me board
at a price absurdly low, with postponement of
payments to the Greek kalends, when money
should be scarce with me.

CHAPTER II

FIRST DAYS IN WALL STREET

According to his card, Mr. Marquand was a
broker who dealt in notes, bonds, stocks, and for-
eign exchange, but business had not commenced
with him at the time of my employment. He
had desk room for himself in the inner office of
the American Fire Insurance Company, and he
was agent for his brother, Frederick, who was
the owner of five stores in Broadway, an equal
number in Liberty Street, beside much other
property.

My duties were to collect the rents and stand
off the complaints of the numerous tenants of
these buildings. Sometimes something had to be
done by carpenter, plumber, roofer, or rigger,
and then I made bargains with workmen and
bossed the job. At times I did things myself,
and I remember robbing a rigger of a job by

32

A Florida Seminole family on the border of the Everglades.
For years I have sought to call attention to their needs and
the effort has not been without fruit.

FIRST DAYS IN WALL STREET 33

splicing a rope in a block-and-fall hoistway for
freight. When afterwards the splicing mysteri-
ously gave way and some damage was done, I
felt that the finger of suspicion should point at
the rigger whose work I had done.

Quarter day was a busy time with me, for
there were many small tenants, and I still hold
in grateful remembrance the few whose checks
always awaited my first call. There were others
with whom it was a game to compel me to climb
those interminable stairs as often as possible, for
there were no elevators then. They reminded me
of an Andover classmate who had compiled a cal-
endar of excuses fitted to every day of the year,
and covering all possible infractions of the rules.
The head of a certain express company was so
fertile in excuses that were patently false that I
prefer toting my own grip to-day to trusting it to
his successor.

When stores, lofts, or rooms became vacant, it
was often not easy to rent them, and references
had to be pretty bad to induce us to let a pro-
posed tenant get away.

34 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

One store in Broadway stood empty so long
that a man who wished it for a restaurant was ac-
cepted as tenant, although his references were
worthless. When he defaulted on his first quar-
ter's rent it became my duty to call upon him
daily and secure as big a contribution as possible
from his cash drawer, and as the deficiency be-
came more and more hopeless I was authorized to
reduce it by my own gastronomic efforts. Three
cents had been the limit I had thus far set to the
cost of my lunch, and this offer nearly ruined my
digestion. My bill-of-fare studies had always
begun at the bottom price, and the shop where I
got half a pie for three cents became dear to me.
It was located on the corner of Pine and William,
and to this day I cannot pass that point without a
thrill.

Now I began at the top-notchers in price, fol-
lowing turtle soup with pate de fois gras, and
eating truffles at two dollars a pair, with ice
cream. I believe that nothing but the thought
of my tri-weekly confessional letters home kept
me from ordering a bottle of a beverage with a

FIRST DAYS IN WALL STREET 35

long-forgotten name which dazzled me with a
price that equalled eight weeks of my wages. I
did my best, but even my country appetite failed
to soak up the rent of a Broadway store, and the
deficit grew until I had to serve legal papers on
my friend, the tenant, and go back to my pie man.

My working hours were from nine to four, with
my chief duty while in the office to stand at my
desk or sit beside it. I tried to coin these vacant
hours, and contracted to address a lot of circulars.
The work was honorably paid for, but my cus-
tomer's refusal to renew the contract was ex-
pressed in unqualified terms.

I took the savings I had reserved for clothing
and invested in a course at a writing academy.
My hand was propped up with a stick to hold it
in proper position, and if I moved a muscle or
changed my expression during the lecture that
followed I was rebuked for lack of attention. I
graduated from the school with a number of new
defects grafted on a hand already abundantly
supplied. Yet those were happy days, often re-
called to me by Whittier's words :

36 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

"Oh, for boyhood's time of June,
Crowding years in one brief moon."

I was in my dreamland of Wall Street, and
although it was not exactly at my feet as I had
planned, yet I had hopes. Then I was getting
acquainted. First came the pastor of the church
I attended, who had come from Massachusetts,
where his parish adjoined my father's. He
looked after me as I could wish a son of mine to
be cared for in a country that was new to him.

My next friend was stout, jolly Jordan, who
sat at the Jersey City ferry entrance. Except-
ing on the first day of the month he never looked
at my ticket, but passed me into the ferry house
with a wave of his hand and a cheery word.
Often when the boat was not in he held me back
for a chat. He took walks with me on Sunday
and taught me some of the ways of the metropoli-
tan world of which I knew so little. Sometimes
I compare him, but never to his disadvantage,
with his more famous brother whom I knew later,
who controlled the hundreds of millions of a great
life insurance company.

FIRST DAYS IN WALL STREET 37

Another chum of those days was the pilot of
one of the ferry boats, whose craft I seldom failed
to catch. Always I crossed in his pilot house,
and often took the wheel while he taught me the
rules of the game. I became a fair judge of
speed and distance and warned back steam-driven
craft with confident signals, while yielding the
right of way to the humblest sailboat. I learned
to estimate the strength of the tide until I could
usually send the boat into the slip scarcely touch-
ing the piles and bring up at the bridge with
gentleness.

But there comes a time near the turn of the tide
when the mid-stream current flows counter to the
one near the banks, and then the very elect are
likely to be at fault. On one such occasion I was
torn from the wheel and sent flying by the scared
pilot, who yet wasn't in time to prevent a mix-up
which could only be straightened out by backing
far out in the river.

"You'll never let me pilot again," said I sadly.

"You come here to-morrow and see. The best
of us can't always hit the slip just right, and I

38 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

didn't mean to be rough." Whereupon I en-
shrined that pilot in my boyish pantheon.

There was a boy employed in a broker's office
with whom I became intimate, and I hung upon
his lips for the drops of Wall Street wisdom that
fell so freely from them. I was impressed at the
time by his assumption that he ran the house that
employed him, but discovered later that among
the boys of that street there was nothing distinc-
tive in such a claim. He owned a rowboat, and
dawn often found us rowing across Communipaw
Bay, where now runs the Central Railroad,
bound for Cavan Point and a morning's fishing.
Sometimes we went as far as Robbin's Reef for
our porgies and weak fish, and on such occasions
started an hour before it was light.

I was hard to waken, but mv friend took the
contract, which I facilitated by sleeping with a
string tied to my toe, one end of which, the string,
not the toe, hung down outside the window. On
one occasion the closed sash caused the string to
fail to work, and the youth tried to climb to my
room by the aid of a vine. He fell into the hands

FIRST DAYS IN WALL STREET 39

of a prowling minion of the law who, after my ap-
pearance, reluctantly admitted that the boy was
innocent, but warned him not to do it again.

On one occasion when both of us had a day off
we proposed to put it in on our fishing ground.
It happened that the Hudson River at its mouth
was filled with pleasure craft of many kinds, in-
cluding excursion boats which for half a dollar a
head carried its passengers to where they could
get a good view of the hanging of Hicks, the pi-
rate, on Bedloe's Island, where the Statue of
Liberty now stands. When I hear Kipling's
wonderful "Danny Deever" sung I think of my
orchestra seat in that skiff when Hicks was exe-
cuted.

I had been working for some weeks when Mr.
Marquand's brother Frederick made one of his
infrequent visits to examine his books. After
opening the combination cash book and journal
in which I was keeping his accounts, he began
conversation by saying:

"Can't you write any better than that?" but he
closed it cordially with an invitation to spend the

40 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

coming Fourth of July with him at his home at
Southport. I dreamed of that visit until I made
it, and so vivid was the vision of the house as my
fancy pictured it that it remains in my memory
from which the real house has faded away. But
the visit itself is fresh in my mind from the story
of his own great business told me in response to
the eager interest which he must have read in my
face.

It was long before commissions on stocks and
foreign exchange caught up with our modest desk
room rent and my munificent salary, but another
door of opportunity opened. The well-to-do
brother had his troubles for rents rolled up and
dividends poured in until a fat bank balance
loomed like a specter before his eyes.

"Something must be done to soak up that
money," was his frequent comment to me, and my
only reply was an attitude of silent sympathy,
though I longed to suggest methods of relief.
Money was in sharp commercial demand, and as
he was principled against taking more than the
legal rate he permitted my employer to discount

FIRST DAYS IN WALL STREET 41

certain paper at six per cent for his account,
allowing his brother to take for himself whatever
commission he could obtain from the makers of
the paper. This commission wras five per cent on
short time notes, but high as it made the cost of
the cash, it was only a fair return for the risk of
the principal. The transaction saved from bank-
ruptcy a house then prominent which afterwards
became great. The big bonus belonged to the
capitalist who contributed the cash, but in this
case he conceded it with full knowledge and good
will.

Mr. Marquand was not a member of the Stock
Exchange, but had arranged with a firm con-
nected with that body to receive a rebate of one-
half the commission on business which he brought
to it. Of course at the present time a member
of the Stock Exchange who proposed to split the
sacred eighth would be drawn and quartered by
order of the Governors.

Our first order to be filled on the exchange was
for fifty shares of Milwaukee and Mississippi
R. R. Co. I use the first person, because that's

42 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

the way all boys think, and a messenger from
26 Broadway, or the White House, is equally
ready to expound "our" policy. The shares
were bought at three dollars each, deliverable on
the following day. As my employer was to be
absent, he left me with a check drawn to my order
with the amount left blank. It was to be the first
check I had ever filled out, and my excitement
was great. When a boy from the broker's firm
drifted in with an envelope addressed to my em-
ployer I wondered at his frivolous demeanor
in the presence of important transactions. I
opened the envelope and took from it a bill for
$156.25. I had written the amount, in prepara-
tion for the great event, on a hundred pieces of
blank paper, and I succeeded in getting it on the
check without an error. Then I turned the pa-
per over and made it payable to the broker's firm,
appending a signature that in illegibility would
have been a credit to the first Napoleon.

All had gone well and my complacency was un-
disturbed until asked for the certificate of the
stock for which I had paid. I knew nothing of

FIRST DAYS IN WALL STREET 43

it, and when asked for the envelope which con-
tained the bill was compelled to admit that I had
torn it up and scattered the fragments in the
streets as I went about my business of collecting
rents, this being my method of disposing of waste
paper, not having a waste basket near my desk.
Through that curious provision by which mem-
ory makes notes of things unobserved at the time
I recalled that I had difficulty in tearing the en-
velope. My employer did not scold, though he
was greatly disturbed and talked of giving up a
business in which the risks were so great.

I bear the spiritual scars of that fiery ordeal
to-day, and during the more than half century
that has passed I have not once thrown away an
envelope without tearing it open. Through this
habit I have saved a few papers of importance,
received messages I should otherwise have lost,
and rescued something less than a million postage
stamps.

Application was made to the railroad company
for a duplicate certificate of stock, legal forms
were complied with, which included affidavits, ad-

44 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

vertisements, and an indemnity bond for twice
the par value of the stock, or ten thousand dollars.
In the end, we recovered the hundred and fiftv
dollars' worth of stock after a moderate expendi-
ture of cash, but at a cost in anxiety which I have
never been able to measure.

Business came in very slowly, but I soon was
able to fill out a check with a steady hand, and
before long had acquired some knowledge of the
probable purchasers of certain classes of securi-
ties. One trivial incident made a red letter day
for me. A certain man who was as much distin-
guished for his parsimony as for his great wealth,
who spent less for his living in a year than his
heirs squander in Newport in a week, brought
us a hundred-dollar bond to sell at a limit of
ninety-seven. My employer did not like the
man, and told me that if his price for the bond
was ninety-seven it was probably worth about
ninety-six. He added that I could have all
I could make out of it, but advised me not to run
my legs off in the effort to sell it.

The bond was of a road in which I knew that

FIRST DAYS IN WALL STREET 45

Moses Taylor was interested, and my first call
was at the City Bank, of which he was president
and the most accessible man in it. As I ap-
proached his desk he said impatiently to a man
beside him who was talking volubly:

"Come to the point, come to the point," and a
moment later dismissed him with a shake of his
head, and nodded to me to come forward. I
placed the bond upon the desk before him, say-
ing:

"Ninety-seven."

Mr. Taylor looked quizzically at me and, draw-
ing his check book toward him, asked:

"What name?"

"Mr. Blank."

When he had filled out the check he inquired :

"What commission does Mr. Blank pay you?"

"A quarter per cent."

"Tell him from me that it isn't enough, that I
paid you one per cent and that if he doesn't
do the same, I'll do it for him. Come back
and tell me what he does about it." Mr. Tay-
lor then added a dollar to the check he handed

46 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

me. At that early period I was too modest for
a Wall Street man, and but for my instructions
to report to Mr. Taylor I would have sacrificed
the dollar rather than carry his message to my
customer. Mr. Blank paid the dollar very
slowly, and until I had it in my hand and even
until I was safely out of his office with it, I felt
no assurance of Mr. Taylor's escape from loss
through his guarantee.

After that I had many dealings with Moses
Taylor, and formed the opinion, which I have
never changed, that he was the best business man
I ever met. I practiced laconicism and never
used a redundant word in my dealings with him,
while he wasted mighty few on me. Yet, looking
back, I know that he often bought securities of
me which he wouldn't have taken from another
at the price. It was only by his manner that he
commended me, excepting in a single instance,
when he filled me with pride to bursting. A St.
Louis friend of my employer wished to meet Mr.
Taylor, and I was sent around to introduce him.
The man from the West wasn't willing to rest

FIRST DAYS IN WALL STREET 47

upon my presentation of him and started to speak
of credentials. Mr. Taylor interrupted him by
saying :

"You don't need any better credentials than
my young friend's introduction," and I scurried
out of the bank before the tears in my eyes could
spill over.

My next business uplift came through James
R. Taylor, and I don't have to shut my eyes to
call up a picture of his kindly face as, seated in
his office in Maiden Lane, he smilingly drew his
check book from its drawer as he caught sight of
my approach. He was a director of the Ameri-
can Fire Insurance Company, in whose office we
had desk room, and the many messages I had
gladly carried for its officers gave me some knowl-
edge of its customers. It was a mutual company
and made return of profits in scrip which was re-
deemable in cash when and if a certain reserve
had accumulated. The individual issues were
small, varying from five to less than one hundred
dollars. Many houses, not caring to bother with
amounts so small, offered the certificates for sale

48 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

to the officers of the company, who bought them
at fifty per cent for account of certain direc-
tors, one of whom was Mr. Tavlor. I had be-
come acquainted with Mr. Taylor through carry-
ing him messages for the company, and when in
the office one day he said to Mr. Downer, the sec-
retary :

"I'll give sixty for a thousand dollars of our
scrip."

Mr. Downer shook his head.

"There isn't any such lot."

Later I maintained for years on the Gold Ex-
change a reputation for quick decisions, but I
never merited it more than when from my desk I
flashed an acceptance of Mr. Taylor's bid :

"I'll sell it to you, if you'll let me deliver it in
small lots."

"You may deliver it in five-dollar lots, if you
like, and you can take your own time to fill your
contract," was his amused reply.

That night I was late to dinner, for I had
scoured the dry goods district, seeking always the

_

Seminole children in the Big Cypress on the border of the
Everglades. From Montana to Mexico, from Arizona to the
Everglades of Florida I have always found the Indians respon-
sive to kindness.

FIRST DAYS IN WALL STREET 49

heads of houses, whom I addressed in substance
as follows:

"Mr. Morton, you hold thirty-five dollars of
American Fire Insurance Company Scrip. Do
you care to sell it?"

"What is it worth?"

'The company pays fifty per cent for it
and I can do the same."

"What do you want of it?"

"I have sold a round lot at a higher price, and
I am picking it up in small lots."

'You can have ours. Do you want to take it
with you?"

"Not until I bring you the money."

"All right, and if I'm not here go to the cash-
ier. He'll have it ready for you."

Usually I got the scrip I went for, and the only
curt refusals I received were when I had to deal
with some underling, clothed in brief authority.
Often there was charring, with grave advice as to
the investment of the capital I was accumulating,
or anxious inquiry as to the soundness of insur-

50 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

ance scrip as security for loans, but I enjoyed
such pleasantry, since it always ended in a
sale to me of the scrip. One prominent merchant
said to me, after the usual preliminary questions :

"I suppose you don't care to tell what price
you get for the scrip, nor to whom you sell it?"

"I would prefer not to."

"Quite right. You can have ours, and as we
have scrip in other companies we shall be glad to
see you when you come to deal in them."

I corralled about five hundred dollars of scrip
on the first day, and went home dizzy with the
thought of my gigantic profits. I know now that
it wasn't merely business and that half the sales
made to me were kindly tributes to my youthful
earnestness, for often I was reminded of my boy-
ish enthusiasm by the merchants themselves when
a few years later I met them on terms of business
equality in matters of financial importance.

I spent hours when I should have slept in plan-
ning how to finance my trades. I decided against
applying to my employer for money, though I
knew how cheerfully he would have furnished it,

FIRST DAYS IN WALL STREET 51

partly from the pride which demanded that I
carry through the deal without his help, and
partly, I am ashamed to say, for fear he would
go into a business so much more promising than
his own.

*

Early in the morning I called on an old friend
who was a clerk in a Maiden Lane jewelry store.

"Henry," said I, "how much money have you
got?"

"How much do you want?" he replied, taking
from his pocket a roll of bills.

"All you have, and I'll pay it all back to-
night."

I nearly sank through the floor when I counted
the forty dollars he handed me, but I sped away
from the office. I abandoned the sidewalks for
the streets, where I could run at will, with one
hand always on that precious money. With the
forty dollars I took up eighty dollars of scrip, for
which Mr. Taylor gave me his check for forty-
eight dollars. He certified to my endorsement
on the check, and I quickly drew the money with
which I ran from store to store until I had paid

52 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

for ninety dollars more of the scrip. That aft-
ernoon I returned the forty dollars to my
friend and had about fifty dollars of my own
in my pocket.

There have been times in my life when I was
well to do, but never again have I felt as rich as
on that night. My gratitude to the friend who
thus financed me half a century ago goes forth
for an obligation that I am glad to feel was not
lessened by the fact that I subsequently set him
up in business at the cost of many thousand dol-
lars.

Soon my capital of fifty dollars was doubled
and my contract with Mr. Taylor carried out,
but he offered to continue his purchases of me
at the same price without limit of amount.

Edmund Clarence Stedman once proposed
partnership with me, moved thereto by what he
called my poetic business imagination. Mr.
Taylor's unlimited bid must have fired that im-
agination, for on my mental ledger I at once cred-
ited myself with ten per cent on the entire is-
sue of the scrip, never doubting my ability to buy

FIRST DAYS IN WALL STREET 53

it all at fifty and sell the whole of it to Mr. Tay-
lor at sixty.

I was given to building castles in Spain, and
on the slim scrip foundation erected edifices as
ambitious in design as the Tower of Babel.
There burst into bloom the flamboyant nature
with the possession of which I was later often
credited or accused. Oh, how I needed a blow
in the solar plexus, and I got it. Mr. Downer,
the secretary of the company, called me aside one
day and told me that one purpose of the mutual
feature of the company with its issuance of scrip,
was to retain the interest of its customers, and
that a merchant in placing insurance, was more
likely to be attracted to a company whose scrip
he held than to another where he had no such in-
terest. He added that the scale on which I was
doing business in their Scrip was striking at the
rout of their interest.

The blow that was good for m£ had fallen, but
I donl like to think of the pain and chagrin of
that houi* nor of the half-dafced days that
followed. But youth Was in my veins and the

54 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

fever of business in my blood, and I rose one
morning with the grim determination to make
that day count as one of progress in the occupa-
tion where I believed my life-work lay. Yet
neither then, nor ever, did I neglect one item of
the duties of my employment. Rents and re-
pairs were attended to, errands run, and even
such outside work as the shoeing and shipping of
the family horses and sending household furni-
ture to the country was faithfully looked after
by me.

My first visit after my new resolution was to
the merchant who had invited me to call when I
was ready to deal in other than American scrip.
He received me kindly and gave me a list of his
holdings, on which I promised a report in a few
days. I interviewed all the insurance scrip bro-
kers of that time, and I think of them to-day as
a shifty lot, always excepting the venerable Wil-
liam C. Gilman, a one-time Quaker abolition-
ist, I believe. He was kindness itself to me,
looked over my list, selected two lots for which
he gave a satisfactory price, and even made

FIRST DAYS IN WALL STREET 55

suggestions of possible purchasers of others.

One broker was polite and promising, and I
became quite confidential with him. Others were
curt, not to say cruel, and told me to send my
principal to them, and that they would trade with
him. When I made my report to the merchant
I learned that the polite broker with whom I had
been too confidential had already called upon him
to solicit his business. I blushed to the soles of
my feet with shame at the thought of the easy
game I had been and the confidences I had
yielded up.

"Don't worry about that," said the merchant,
"I told your broker friend that getting the con-
fidence of a boy and betraying it wasn't the best
way to secure our business." Then he handed
me a letter of introduction to the head of another
house whose holdings of scrip were large, and I
left him with another name written large in my
pantheon.

Little as there was to do, it became necessary
for me to be always on hand at the office during
business hours, and Mr. Marquand employed a

56 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

boy to attend to the tenants and run errands for
the office. On one occasion when my employer
was spending the day with his family in New-
burgh I sent the boy to the bank with $2,500 in
gold. When he failed to return in a reasonable
time I ran to the bank and learned that the boy
had not been there. After consultation with the
cashier, I notified the police, got out handbills,
and inserted notice of the robbery in an evening
paper. Then I started for Newburgh. I never
want another journey like that. When I met
Mr. Marquand I couldn't speak for a bit, and
then he wouldn't let me. He put his arm around
me, saying:

"Don't try to talk about it now. No matter
what it is> we will live through it cheerfully.
Don't think of it any more> but come to supper
and see if you can't laugh a little, the way I like
to hear you."

He made the evening almost pleasant to me,
and it was near its close when lie sat beside me to
get the little trouble 6fF my mind.

CHAPTER III

WAR TIME AND GOLD

On Sunday, the fourteenth of April, 1861, we
heard of the fall of Sumter. The spiritual at-
mosphere was charged with electricity at a pain-
ful tension. All men were friends and all
women acquaintances. Strangers clasped hands
in the street and poured out news* wild rumors,
or denunciations. I was one of a vast throng
that crowded the ferry boats to Brooklyn that
evening on their way to Plymouth Church.
Beecher, inspired,- preached from the text,
"Speak unto the children of Israel that they go
forward," About the middle of the service a yel-
Idw envelope, containing a despatch that was
false, w&s sent to the platform. The silence as
Bee^her read the telegram was painful* but when
he waved it in air and exclaimed with the full
power of his magnetic voice,

57

58 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

"Not Sumter, but Moultrie, has fallen!" pan-
demonium broke loose. Hats and handkerchiefs
were tossed in air, canes and umbrellas waved,
and strangers embraced, while cheers were
mingled with sobs. While the spell was upon
me that night I wrote of the event with boyish
abandon, and the unbidden tears often fill my
eyes as I think of an evening in my own home a
decade later, when Henry Ward Beecher, while
running over my scrap books came upon the effu-
sion and read it with his arm around me.

At this later time my steamship office was at
5 Bowling Green, and occasionally it happened
that word was brought to me:

"Mr. Beecher is in his buggy, outside."

Little it mattered who was with me, or how im-
portant the business, directors' meeting or other-
wise, in another minute I was seated beside my
friend, the hero of my imagination since first I
met him at the home of his famous sister, Harriet
Beecher Stowe, in Andover. For an hour he
would drive through the streets of lower New
York, where then there was little of traffic to in-

WAR TIME AND GOLD 59

terfere with his driving or with the stream of hu-
mor, pathos, and wisdom that flowed in their turn
from his lips.

Fourteen years to a day from that famous
fourteenth of April, 1861, I was with Mr. and
Mrs. Beecher in that courtroom which saw the
great sorrow of their lives. I was with them after
the strain of the day was over, and the great
man's tone was as genial, his manner as natural,
and his humor as delicious as if he had not been
passing through purgatory.

Rev. Henry M. Gallaher and John Swinton
had gone with me, and in our chat after the ad-
journment, Mrs. Beecher thanked us for coming,
and turning to Mr. Gallaher, she said:

"Now, Mr. Gallaher, I'll forgive you for Iona
Island."

She was referring to a picnic of Plymouth
Church Sunday School at Iona Island, when in
moot court Mr. Beecher was tried for heresy.
Mr. Gallaher was judge of the court, and the
jury were the twelve prettiest girls in the school.
The girls found the defendant guilty, and Judge

60 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

Gallaher sentenced Mr. Beecher to kiss the jury.

Of events that followed the fall of Sumter, the
nerve centers were in Wall Street with the Gold
Exchange its vortex. Of the inside history of the
Gold Exchange during the war and the three
years that followed, the chief happenings were
better known to me than to any other man.
When I began this story, at the instance of a
friend whom for half a century I have known as
the editor of a great journal, I laid aside modesty.
Where the personal pronoun seems called for I
use it, for these events of fifty years ago have be-
come in great measure impersonal.

The wild fluctuations which accompanied the
beginning of the Civil War stirred Wall Street
to its depths and brought business to brokers * and
soon my employer removed to an office of his own.
Though I ceased to have time to solicit scrip busi-
ness, it followed me' to the office until Mr* Mar-
quand proposed that in return for office facilities
he be made an dqual sharer in the prbfite and
risks of my Scrip business. As I had not at-

WAR TIME AND GOLD 61

tained my majority this was the limit of partner-
ship possible.

The calamitous issue of greenbacks, and later
of National Bank notes, doubled the cost of the
war, changed business into gambling, and made
of gambling a business. Speculation overflowed
the boundaries of the Stock Exchange, and after
its adjournment each day a frenzied crowd
swayed to and fro at the corner of William
Street and Exchange Place, shrieking their bids
and offers. Those who willed might buy or sell
stocks, giving some recognized broker who would
guarantee the contract.

Here culminated the Harlem tragedy and the
picture of John Tobin is vivid in my memory, as
he stood wild-eyed, on the steps of a building on
the southwest corner of William Street and Ex-
change Place, bidding, bidding, always bidding,
at always advancing prices, for one hundred, two
hundred, five hundred shares of Harlem. His
hair was dishevelled, his collar ends loose, and he
seemed to froth at the mouth while tobacco juice

62 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

dribbled on his shirt as he waved his arms aloft,
with a memorandum book in his left hand and a
pencil in his right. As the price was advanced
an occasional speculator sold him a hundred
shares for a turn, while others who wanted to sell
refrained, fearing the man was crazy and would
never pay for the shares. None thought of him
as the agent of "the Commodore," as Cornelius
Vanderbilt was always called.

The world knows the story, how Vanderbilt
bought from the aldermen a right of way for his
Harlem through the streets of New York,
paying therefor with cash and options on the
stock. After the ordinance had been passed and
the aldermen had realized on their options, for
the stock had advanced when their action was
known, they determined on another killing. Not
being honest in the aldermanic sense of men who
will stay bought, the}^ double-crossed the Commo-
dore by repealing the ordinance after rushing to
their brokers and ordering as many shares sold
short as their brokers would stand for. But
there was no break in the price of the stock, no

WAR TIME AND GOLD 65

spilling of the Vanderbilt shares, whose worth
had been cut in half, and here was the crazy Tobin
bidding up the stock to pitiless heights.

It was no longer a question of aldermen ; their
margins had melted out of sight. The brokers'
heads were in the lion's mouth. Every share of
Harlem was in Vanderbilt hands, and the broker
who had agreed to deliver even a hundred shares
was at his mercy, and he had no mercy. He
could demand one hundred, five hundred, a thou-
sand per cent, for the shares. Most of the
victims he stripped to the buskin, leaving them
only their business credit with which to build up
new fortunes. Our escape was by the breadth of
a hair. A customer, acting upon the tip of an
alderman whom he knew, sold through my em-
ployer a hundred shares of Harlem short. My
anxiety about this contract took me to the
outskirts of the crowd, where Tobin was bidding
for the stock. It chanced as I stood there that
the very broker who executed our orders on the
exchange came to me and said:

"I've got a hundred shares of that stock to sell,

64 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

but I hate to let that crazy man have it. I don't
believe he can pay for it."

"I'll take it at the price he is bidding," said I,
and I rushed to the office to report what I had
done. I had covered without orders and at a
heavy loss the short sale of a customer possessed
of large wealth and a sometimes sharp tongue,
and I dreaded facing him. Reporting to my em-
ployer was easy, for in his uniform kindly fash-
ion he endorsed my action, and said he would as-
sume all responsibility for it with his customer.
There was no trouble with the customer, for he
had been saved from ruin, and he congratulated
himself on his own good fortune.

With the suspension of specie payments deal-
ings in gold began. At first they were confined
to the offices of money brokers, but their volume
increased, speculation became rife, and operators
almost blockaded William Street. The unit of
dealings was five thousand dollars, but soon bids
for a hundred thousand were frequent. We had
orders enough to keep me in the crowd watching
prices, and no thought of speculation entered my

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WAR TIME AND GOLD 65

employer's mind, nor mine — for a time. But
it isn't easy to watch a game of the kind where
easy money is made by the turn of a hand, and
I began to think of my idle balance, for little was
doing in scrip, and to wonder if it were wise to
keep that talent wrapped in a napkin. I
talked with the wisest brokers I knew, and was
often advised to buy and time and again came
near yielding. Then came the wild upward rush
when gold first crossed 170 per cent. The
largest dealer of that time advised me confiden-
tially,

"Get aboard quick! There's no stopping it.
All my customers are buying and every one else.
Let me buy five for you. I won't charge you
any commission and you'll make ten per cent in a
week."

I nodded my head, and was committed to the
first gambling deal of my life. I had stood on
the brink many times, but had always shrunk
back from the thought of admitting at the office
that I had registered a bet on the price of gold.
For the creed of the office, like that of the street

66 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

to-day, was that gambling for another on com-
mission was godly, while taking the risk oneself
was the other thing. A little later we abandoned
that attitude.

My purchase of five thousand gold was fol-
lowed by a downward swoop of the market, which
rallied and fell, plunging lower each time, until
soon a thirty per cent loss stared me in the
face. Then my mentor came to me, saying:

"We were misled by the news which was not
so bad as it seemed. Now the market is going
to pot, but I can tell you how to get square. Sell
out your five and sell five more short. Then you
can ride down on the market and come out even."

I took his advice, and the market swung up-
ward, and a few days later came his advice to
turn once more and go long of five gold again.
I should have refused, for twice his judgment had
proved as mistaken as possible, but the veterans
of the Street agreed with him, and men I deemed
wise shook their heads as they said,

"The outlook is very bad, and I shouldn't be
surprised if gold sold at two hundred."

WAR TIME AND GOLD 67

I could feel the gloom in the air and see the
hopelessness of the situation until, wondering
that I had hesitated for a moment, I again
bought. Once more the market turned and
again plunged downward. More than half my
capital had gone,- and the rest was slowly melting
away as the price of gold continued to decline.
I studied the problem by day and dreamed of it
at night. There came to my mind the skeleton
of a theory involving the apothegm, "In specula-
tion the majority are always wrong," and I de-
termined to test it. I watched without comment
the sickening decline until again came the broker's
advice to sell out and go short, for now, surely
the bottom had dropped out.

Bead, the broker, was electrified by my order,
"Do not sell, but buy five thousand gold!" and I
had to resist his appeals not to plunge to certain
destruction. Later he congratulated me on my
bull luck in going long of gold just when the best
people in the street were selling. He had fre-
quent occasion thereafter to be shocked by my
orders for they were invariably contrary to his

68 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

advice. Of course Read was not always wrong,
and I seldom sold at the exact top of the market
or bought at the extreme bottom, but I did come
marvelously near it, and it was by acting counter
to his advice that I won back the most of my
losses.

About this time I made a strike which, although
it was strictly business, began with a bet and
ended with the luck of a prize in a lottery.
There was an upward turn in the market which
carried gold above forty in wild excitement. A
speculator who had just bought largely shouted,

"I'll bet four thousand dollars gold sells above
fifty this month."

"Take the bet!" I shouted before the words
were fairly out of his mouth, and the next instant
I bought fifty thousand gold at near forty. Sev-
eral davs later I stood in a half-wild crowd as
gold swirled up to fifty — almost. Forty-nine
and three quarters was bid, and counting my bet
as lost, I stood with hand uplifted to plunk the
first bidder for any large lot of gold. With the
bet lost, it was necessary for me to sell at once

WAR TIME AND GOLD 69

the fifty thousand gold I had bought that the five
thousand profit it showed might pay the four
thousand bet and leave me one thousand to the
good, on which I had figured in making the trans-
action. Beside me was M. M. Broadwell, a
sturdy Westerner of Kansas City whom all gold
dealers of that day will remember. He had a
big, patriarchal beard, and a booming voice which
he loved to let out in excited times in his favor-
ite bid for a hundred thousand gold, beside
which the bid for a million for anything to-day
would be like the babbling of a child. As I stood
with hand uplifted, the big voice boomed its war
cry,

"I'll give fifty for a hundred thousand!"

I smote him on the back with a yell,

"Sold!"

The bid was a bluff, the crowd knew it;
my sale knocked the pins from under the market
and it crumbled. The natural culmination of the
rise had come, a tumble of near ten points was
due, and it came in the next few days.

When I started to round up my deal I had

70 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

fairly made a thousand dollars, the five thousand
profit on the advance less the four thousand sup-
posed to be lost on the bet. But in fear lest the
market should break before I could sell my fifty,
I sold Broadwell one hundred thousand, intend-
ing to buy back fifty at once, but the market
broke so badly that I waited and continued to
wait through a fall of nearly ten per cent. The
account in round figures was as follows: Five
thousand dollars profit on the fifty thousand gold
bought at first, a similar gain on the lot sold short,
and lastly, four thousand on the bet which I won,
since gold sold at fifty and not above it, which lat-
ter was the basis on which the bet was made. Ex-
cepting for my delay in buying in the extra fifty
thousand I had sold, I submit that the whole
transaction was safe and sane business.

4 'One story is good until another is told," and
the fact that the speculator with whom I made the
bet failed cut down my profits bj7 four thousand
dollars and made it difficult to maintain my claim
of the legitimacy of the transaction from a con-
servative standpoint.

WAR TIME AND GOLD 71

Mr. Marquand shook his head when I told him
of my bet, and called it pure gambling, but I
claimed that it was safer business than buying
grain bills on London and selling his own ex-
change against them at a half per cent profit.
I explained that if gold went to fifty per cent
premium and I lost the bet, I should sell at that
price the fifty thousand I bought at forty, mak-
ing ten per cent, or five thousand dollars,
which, after paying my lost bet, would leave me
a thousand to the good.

"But suppose the market tumbles, and you lose
five thousand dollars on the gold you bought?"

"If it tumbles I win my bet of four thousand
dollars, which carries the cost of my gold down
to thirty-two, at which point I neither lose nor
make. But if it rises eight per cent in the few
days left of the month I make eight per cent
on my purchase, or four thousand dollars, and
win the bet in addition, making eight thousand
in all."

"You won't have such luck as that."

"I don't expect it, but I have a right to figure

72 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

on the average and count my profits as four thou-
sand dollars from the minute I made the transac-
tion. That's the whole basis of your Equitable
business, that law of chances which, admitting
that nothing is more uncertain than the hours of
a single life proves that nothing is more im-
mutable than the average length of life of a mil-
lion."

Of course I didn't use that exact language, as
I wasn't then talking for publication, but beneath
the words I did use, which in detail I have quite
forgotten, was the mathematical theory which I
have sought to set forth. Throughout our spec-
ulations which I subsequently conducted as part-
ner, unchangingly and consistently for years I al-
ways asserted, and usually believed, that they
were conducted on theories as sound and prin-
ciples as fixed as those of that same Equitable
Life Assurance Society.

I liked to talk of that company to my partner,
for it was the apple of his eye, or at least one of
them. He was one of the founders of the com-
pany, a director with much to do with its manage-

WAR TIME AND GOLD 73

ment while he lived. It was started by a wor-
shipful group in Dr. Alexander's church, with
the ostensible purpose of finding a soft berth for
the Doctor's brother, and with a secret motive
which they tried to Hyde, to give scope to the
pushing activities of a young associate. The sub-
scription to the last few shares of the hundred
thousand dollar capital came hard, and I remem-
ber running my legs off to place them, the self-
same shares that were afterwards counted worth
ten thousand dollars each.

CHAPTER IV

BUSINESS OR GAMBLING

When the house of H. G. Marquand and
D knock was formed it was big with enthusiasm
and hope, for I had enough for two, but its capital
was twenty thousand dollars, which I contributed,
the result of the scrip and insurance stock busi-
ness and the gold speculations of which I have, in
part, written. But my partner was an old New
Yorker, of a family held in highest esteem, and he
possessed the full faith of the men of affairs of
the day, the shipping firms of South Street, and
the great merchants of the dry goods district.
These men took our sixty-day bills of exchange
on Baring's and the City Bank of London at the
highest rates. These drafts were covered by
commercial bills, secured by bills of lading and
insurance, and bought at a price that showed a

fair profit.

74

BUSINESS OR GAMBLING 75

But the exchange that we sold passed out of
our hands days before a check was received in
payment, and the chance of a failure of a firm in
that interim seemed to me a greater risk than the
profits justified. When the mischance did hap-
pen and we were salted with a loss of forty thou-
sand dollars by the failure of a Boston firm, it
was at a later period, when the loss, instead of
being ruinous, was unembarrassing.

I knew nothing and cared less for the ex-
change business, and during my partner's ab-
sences, in Europe or elsewhere, carried it on per-
functorily, following literally his instructions,
which I insisted on having in writing.

We had a few speculative accounts, some of
which were in stocks on which we had to divide
our commissions, since I had not then become a
member of the Stock Exchange. Yet I may
have been a member for a minute, though if so, I
was bounced the next. My name was posted for
membership with Abraham B. Bay lis and Robert
L. Cutting as my sponsors, and I believe I was
unopposed in the balloting, but before the result

76 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

was announced it was discovered that I was not
twenty-one years of age.

Our business was speculative from the first, and
soon consisted almost entirely of the turns in gold
which I made. From Monte Carlo to the police-
protected dens in New York; from the Ex-
changes, big and little, down to the bucket and
policy shops, each player of the game has his sys-
tem. From the financier's figures to the darkey's
dream, the purpose of each is to convert chance
into certainty, and all are alike futile. The sim-
plest and soundest of these systems has been de-
feated at the gaming table many thousand times,
yet the apparent mathematics of the thing will
lure victims while time lasts. The most mentally
agile brokers, steeped from childhood in knowl-
edge of the market, without commissions to pay
and standing at the fountain head, make at best
a precarious living.

The gambler in stocks, for the euphemism
of speculator deceives only the unintelligent,
usually buys or sells upon a secret tip which he
is assured comes from the very arcanum of the

BUSINESS OR GAMBLING 77

Street, but even if this be true, or if the advice
proceeds from the biggest frenzied financier or
the smallest capper in the game, its purpose to de-
ceive is invariable.

"But would the man who passes the plate on
Sunday mislead me on Monday?" you ask. Con-
sider the careers of the godly men of great wealth
and answer your own question. When a finan-
cial king becomes sanctimonious his daily
prayer is,

"Bless the lambs of the fold and make them
meat for the kingdom."

Daniel Drew was a famous giver of misleading
tips, and he passed them out sandwiched between
prayers. I have often called upon him in his
home, but was never ushered into his presence
without finding his head bent reverently over his
big Bible.

"What do you think of the market?" I asked
Melliss, as bright a financial editor as the World
ever had.

"Did you read what I said in the World this
morning?"

78 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

"Yes."

"Well, I think just the opposite."

It is the fashion for the public to condemn the
Stock Exchange and lay the blame of its losses
on the members thereof, but the evil lies back of
the Exchange. Its members will measure up
well with the public that deals with them. Com-
missions are large and the interest account a mine
in Stock Exchange business, but carrying cus-
tomers beyond their margins makes horrible holes
in the profits, for the advances never come back.
In my own experience of hundreds of such cases
I can count on the fingers of one hand the cus-
tomers who ever made good. These losses were
not of trifling sums, for I could name three, each
of which ran into six figures, and the total far ex-
ceeds all the commissions I ever received.

A broker's office should be run by machinery,
with accounts kept by tabulators and an automatic
device for cutting them off when margins run out,
as relentlessly as Atropos snips the thread of hu-
man life, which to customers seems about the same
thing. Few members of the Exchange have at-

BUSINESS OR GAMBLING 79

tained this degree of perfection, yet I have in
mind one who has practiced this system for a full
generation. An appeal to his sympathies, even
by an associate, would bring a smile to the lips of
the golden calf which he worships. He is finan-
cially sound as the Bank of England, and has mil-
lions of dollars, and, possibly, somewhere a friend.
Having proclaimed that all speculative systems
are fallacious and having denounced their advo-
cates as false or foolish, I am about to exploit one
myself, claiming for it a mathematical and logi-
cal basis and substantial infallibility in practice.
At least it proved unfailing during the years I
employed it, and the average daily profits ran
into the thousands. That my share of the accu-
mulations failed to remain with me was not the
fault of the system, but my own. Through its
proceeds great railroads were founded, educa-
tional institutions endowed, and family fortunes
established. My partner, who looked on askance
at first, soon adopted the theory that a method
which, though dealing in chance, worked so inde-
pendently of it, was business and not gambling.

80 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

It is without thought of satire or levity that I
recall the many occasions when he closed the
door of our private office to give thanks to God
for the wonderful gift He had bestowed upon me.
But the gift was not what he, and others, per-
sisted in thinking it. I had no keen perception
of the trend of prices, no intuition of what the
next turn was to be. Whatever I did was in the
line of mathematics and not of impulse. The
work was mechanical, and a machine could have
done it better than I. Always I was buying
when I felt like selling and selling when every
impulse impelled me to buy.

I have already written of the ebb and flow of
the tide in the price of gold and of the cash I
coined through some crude calculation of its
periodicity. But the action of this tide was slow
and though as certain as the beat of a pendulum,
the arc through which it swung was governed by
human hopes and fears not easily estimated. As
on the Gulf Coast an adverse gale piles high the
waters, holding them back for days, so political,
commercial, or financial bugbears, threatening

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BUSINESS OR GAMBLING 81

trouble abroad with panic at home, or some wild
expansion of an already highly diluted currency,
sent skyward the price of gold, holding it for days
with the look of Gibraltar, even while it was tot-
tering to its fall.

But while the pendulum of the gold tide beat
slowly, the rise and fall of the waves was like the
swinging balance of a watch. The unit of trans-
actions on the Gold Exchange was five thousand
dollars in gold and the prices varied by one-
eighth of one per cent. On an active day in the
market, even though gold might close at the price
at which it opened, the fluctuations, counting by
eighths, ran high in the hundreds and sometimes
invaded the thousands. What was the use of
customers with their occasional commissions by
the day or the week, when commissions galore
hung before my eyes in every change in the mar-
ket, whether up or down? I made of myself a
nerveless machine and for nearly all the three
hundred minutes of each daily session stood be-
side the curved rail that enclosed the Gold Room
pit buying Hve thousand gold at every eighth

82 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

decline and selling the same amount at every
eighth advance.

All day I stood there, buying and selling, buy-
ing and selling, with a stubby pencil in my right
hand and in my left a note-book, on the one and
other side of which I dashed down prices with
hieroglyphs for names as I nodded to the right
and the left my acceptance of bids and offers.
One minute might pass without a transaction and
in the next a score be crowded. Always my bid
and offer were on the floor a quarter per cent
apart. Thus if I had just bought five thousand
at a premium of fifty and one-eighth per cent, I
would bid fifty for five more, and offer to sell five
at fifty and one quarter. Every purchase was
balanced, sooner or later, by a sale of the same
amount at an advance of an eighth per cent.
Thus if I made one purchase and sale in each
minute of a day's session my profit for that day
would be $1,875. Often this profit was multi-
plied, for in times of much excitement the price
would skip the fractions and jump one per cent
at a leap, in which case instead of selling five

)

BUSINESS OR GAMBLING 83

thousand at each eighth advance, making forty
thousand at an advance of nine-sixteenths, the
whole forty thousand would be sold at an advance
of one per cent, an extra profit of $175.

Of course on every decline of one per cent I
accumulated forty thousand gold which tem-
porarily showed a loss of two hundred dollars,
while a ten per cent decline would leave me with
$400,000 gold on hand, showing at the market
price a loss of $20,000. But the turns of a fort-
night would pay this loss, which was really nom-
inal as it was never made, for the gold was held
till the loss disappeared, while the profits of turns
rolled up in our banks.

The profits of a year were so great that begin-
ning the deal at fifty per cent premium there
would have been a fortune left over after paying
the loss on a decline to par or an advance to one
hundred per cent premium. No other business
of its magnitude was so easy to carry on. With
every extended advance we became short of gold
and were compelled to borrow it by millions to
make good our contracts to deliver. For not

84 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

only did I sell for short turns on the advancing
waves, but as the tide rose high and the last bear
crawled under cover while bulls pawed the earth
I sold an extra million or so, with faith in my
theory but with physical distress that made my
knees tremble.

But as the only large borrower of gold in a
market where every other man was anxious to
lend it, since the alternative was borrowing
money to carry it and money was always scarce
as hen's teeth at such times, I received a high rate
of interest for the cash advanced against the gold
borrowed. Sometimes I received a bonus in ad-
dition to interest, even as large as one quarter per
cent, which meant $2,500 for carrying a million
gold over night, or at the rate of nearly one hun-
dred per cent per annum.

The working of the system I established left
me, near the culmination of every extended rise,
distressfully burdened with great commitments
to deliver gold in a market so rampant that it
seemed silly to think it could ever again decline.
The Gold Exchange was jubilant, with every

BUSINESS OR GAMBLING 85

member a bull and my heart turned to water as
wild advances were predicted, advances that
would have swept us and our fortunes from the
board.

I think I never flinched in that room, whatever
the thrust, but in our private office I must have
shown my distress, for my partner would leave
the room and going over to the Exchange to "look
at the market" would return with pallid face.
When I begged him not to go to the Exchange
till the strain was over he would reply, —

"I ought to be able to stand it, if you can."
Then I would go back to the Gold Room with de-
fiance in my heart and when some rampant bull
with a challenging look at me would bid for a hun-
dred thousand gold at an eighth above the last
sale, I would nod a smiling acceptance of his bid,
and offer him a hundred thousand more at the
same price and if he shook his head would offer
any part of a million at an eighth or a quarter per
cent lower, and while the market shivered and
dropped half a point or so would turn to the
"Gold Loan Market" and arrange to carry on

86 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

Shylock terms the gold which some sanguine bull
had purchased beyond his ability to carry.

I stood alone, without support or sympathy in
my position in the market, and the burden was
almost greater than I could bear, but I felt there
was balm in Gilead when I saw how the market
receded if I offered to sell and when one after
another of the most rabid bulls came to me for
help to carry his gold. It was onfy after many
successful campaigns had given me the courage
of my convictions that I dared to dominate the
market and if a bull pool attempted to lift the
price to swamp it with millions.

I was first annoyed and afterwards pleased
when cartoons were passed around picturing me
as the little Napoleon with more or less striking
sayings as legends. They helped my game and
stiffened my spine when a strong play had to be
made. It came to be accepted that in the fre-
quent single combats when amounts increased
from tens to hundreds of thousands and perhaps
touched millions I would never recede but if I
were the buyer, would take all my opponent

BUSINESS OR GAMBLING 87

would sell and would then bid for another mil-
lion.

It was a perilous reputation to hold and in later
years when my dealings were less dominant I
looked for a chance to rid myself of it. The op-
portunity came. One day I had half a million
gold to sell and as I entered the Gold Room saw
Albert Speyers standing by the rail bidding for
one hundred thousand gold.

:Sold," said I.

'A hundred more," and again I said, —
:Sold."

"Three hundred thousand more."

"Sold."

"Half a million more," and I turned away.
Every eye was upon me in that silent room, when
from a distant corner in a deep voice came a word
that has left a scar on my memory, — "Bismarck!"

a

a

a

CHAPTER V

MARKET MANIPULATION

Always the market looked strongest just as
it was nearest its culmination and already totter-
ing to its fall. But though reason and experi-
ence told me this the burden I carried rested no
less heavily on nerves that were sore and quivered
at every comment, in the daily press or on the
floor of the Exchange, on the phenomenal
strength of the market. That which bore me up
and eariied me through was the constant throb-
bing of the machine I had created. Buying and
selling, always buying and selling at each eighth
decline and each eighth advance, helped me to
forget the adverse flood that the whole world
seemed to predict.

The machine helped me no less when the crash
came and the high price edifice tumbled about our
ears. For in the frenzy of the panic and the din

88

MARKET MANIPULATION 89

of a hundred shouted offers to sell, while prices
tumbled by points and rallied in big fractions,
when a hundred thousand gold was offered on
my left hand at a price one-half per cent lower
than was bid on my right and when modest mem-
bers of the Exchange, for there have been such,
were raving like maniacs, the machine worked on.
We didn't talk in those days of subconscious
selves, but I had one that worked overtime for
me. As with nods and words I bought and sold,
jotting down as many of the transactions as
nimble fingers were capable of, and holding the
rest in memory, that subconscious imp kept tabs
on my trades and had a balance sheet ready for
me the instant I asked it.

Money was pouring into our coffers by thou-
sands of dollars, tens and twenties and fifties of
them, but the machine held my jubilation down
and suppressed all signs of unseemly exultation.
It held me to the simplicity of the system and
kept me from increasing the unit of operation,
which in the hours of triumph I was often
tempted to do. When the central point of the

90 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

wave system was touched and every dollar of
gold bought under it had been sold and the last
short sale covered, it pleasured me much to lay
quietly on my partner's desk a slip of paper show-
ing the result of the latest campaign. I enjoyed
that first look of incredulitv and then — but I have
already told what he said.

As the tide continued to ebb the machine piled
up gold in our office, and as the political and
financial skies seemed to brighten, the great bears
came out of their caves while the most stubborn
of the bulls lightened their loads, or even turned
bears for the nonce. While the price continued
to tumble the wave machine never ceased to pour
in its steady stream of profits, but for the moment
these were dwarfed by the daily decline in value
of the great and increasing burden of gold we
were carrying. For the machine added forty
thousand dollars to this load on every one per
cent decline, and always I believed the sweep of
the receding tide had ended days before the real
culmination.

MARKET MANIPULATION 91

As bull after bull despaired of a turn in the
tide and threw overboard his holdings I added to
ours with mathematical faith in my theory but
with a spiritual doubt that anguished me. When
the market was joyously booming and the top of
it nowhere in sight it was my unhappiness to be
borrowing, always borrowing the metal that was
growing more precious with each passing hour,
so when its price was tumbling until the crowd
predicted that soon the difference between the
gold and the greenback dollar would disappear,
it was always my fate to be loaded to the guards
with enough of it to keep me from sleep. Our
commitments were always greater on the long
side of the market, for the courage with which I
accumulated large amounts was of a different
quality from that which supported me when sell-
ing it short. The more gold declined the safer it
was to hold for always it was nearing its bottom
price of par, beneath which it could not go, but
to one who was short there was no fixed top to the
market since there was no limit to the possible

I

92 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

issue of paper money as proved by our Conti-
nental currency, the French assignats, or the then
recent issue of Confederate money.

There was another comfort to my soul that
loomed large. The stock of gold in the market
was never great in the days of which I am writ-
ing, and when short sales, by lowering abnor-
mally the price, had driven much of it from the
Street the demand for it became acute. At such
times the bear who borrowed gold to fulfill his
contracts not only loaned the money put up to
secure its return, without charging interest there-
for, but paid a daily bonus for the use of the gold.
It was so difficult and costly to borrow gold that
dealers often defaulted on their deliveries, trust-
ing that the brokers to whom the gold was due
would not buy it in, under the rule, for their ac-
count as they had a right to do, but would accept
delivery the following day. As A's failure to
deliver to B the gold he owed him, caused B to
default in his own delivery to C, who in turn
failed on D, the confusion became great and to
remedy it the Exchange fixed a penalty of one

MARKET MANIPULATION 93

quarter of one per cent for the failure to deliver
by 2.15 p. m. gold that was due that day.

Each day as that hour approached, boys laden
with coin could be seen dashing at top speed
through Wall and adjacent streets. For when
gold was scarce dealers borrowed only enough to
fulfill their contracts, trusting that if they failed
to deliver ten or a hundred thousand paying the
penalty of twenty-five, or $250 they would re-
coup from the firm who had failed on them. But
if it happened that a lot of say a hundred thou-
sand gold was delivered at 2.14 p. m., the firm to
which it was delivered was compelled to take and
pay for it, but unless it could make its own deliv-
eries of the same within the minute that was left
it would have to carry the gold over night and
deliver it the next day when $250 penalty would
be collected.

A minute is a long time and usually the boys
carrying the twenty bags containing five thou-
sand gold each, would be met at the door of the
office by five other boys, each of whom would
seize four of the bags, weighing twenty pounds

94 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

each and sprint with them to the office where they
were to be delivered. If this office were within a
block it was pretty sure to be stuck with the gold.
There were daily disputes over the time of deliv-
ery, for the boy who had raced a hundred yards
with a backload of gold was always sure he had
arrived in time, while the cashier who refused it
pointed at the clock. Then the boy impeached
the clock and appealed to Hammond of William
Street, the Wall Street standard of time.
Watches were compared and a boy delegated to
go with him to Hammond's where they settled the
dispute.

Hammond's face and office are pictured in my
memory to-day because of a lesson I received
more than a generation ago. It was at a later
period, when gold checks and gold certificates
had taken the place of coin for delivery, and a
million dollars of gold was represented by a small
package. I was in the outer office when a boy
from Hallgarten's rushed into the office with a
handful of gold certificates for delivery.

MARKET MANIPULATION 95

"Too late!" said the cashier, looking at the
clock.

"On time!" exclaimed the boy producing his
watch which gave him five seconds to spare.

"Guess you're wrong, Hallgarten," said I,
"but I'll walk around to Hammond's with you."

I was interested in proving the boy wrong, for
the gold which was coming to us was half a mil-
lion dollars and the penalty if our office was right
was $1,250. At Hammond's we compared our
watches with his clock and I was nearer right than
the boy, who admitted that his delivery had been
late and left the watchmaker's office. I followed
closely, but when outside I happened to look back
through the glass door and saw Hammond be-
hind the counter. What spirit of evil or good
impelled me I know not, but I swung open that
door and called to Hammond as I pointed to the
clock with which we had compared our watches :

"That clock is the standard, isn't it?"

"No, this one," was the reply.

The boy saved me from temptation by hearing

96 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

what Hammond said, and together we went back
for the new comparison, which showed that his
watch was right. The boy returned to our office
for his check while I went to the Exchange to
borrow three quarters of a million dollars in cur-
rency at a stiff rate of interest, to carry the gold.
Interest and penalty footed up $1,400, the cost
to us of a foolish question of mine.

That afternoon I bought the most expensive
Jurgenson watch I could find, which with the
heavy duty and the high premium on gold, ap-
proached in cost my witless query to the watch-
maker. Perhaps it has helped to make good the
loss in ways not apparent since for four and a
half decades it has reminded me daily of the folly
of foolish questions and the wisdom of letting well
enough alone.

Recurring to the time when deliveries of gold
were made in coin, and the amount passed
through our office daily could be measured in
tons, there were times when delayed deliveries
made things lively for us in the few minutes pre-
ceding the official limit of time for delivery.

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MARKET MANIPULATION 97

Every one in the office was commandeered, loaded'
with all the gold he could carry, and sent flying
through the street, while even the casual caller
was crimped and handed two twenty-pound bags,
with the command:

"Just run across the street to Drexel's with
that and get a receipt. Hurry up!"

Often I came in from the Exchange at the de-
livery hour to take the cashier's desk while he
rushed out with a belated delivery, or more fre-
quently to carry the gold myself when boys were
waiting for receipts for gold delivered, of which
only the cashier knew the amounts. Sometimes
the excitement extended to the inner office and
my partner coming into the working office laid
hands on a bag of gold, saying:

"Can't I help by delivering this?" but I balked
at that and replied:

"You can help by watching this desk while I
run out with the gold."

There was no giving of checks in these last ex-
citing minutes. Penciled figures and a boy's
initial stood for a delivery of five, or fifty thou-

98 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

«

sand gold until, the delivery hour having passed,
memories and memorandums were consulted
while checks were drawn and collected amounting
to hundreds of thousands of dollars and long
breaths of relief were drawn each day when the
tangle had been straightened out and a rough cal-
culation showed that no bags of gold had been
lost in the shuffle. We had plenty of scares and
some dramatic escapes, the account of some of
which will appear elsewhere in this writing.

As in the day of financial depression I stood
apart from my fellows, so amid the pseans of
commercial thanksgiving as expressed in the ad-
vancing value of our currency as compared with
gold, I felt that like Ishmael my hand was against
every man and every man's hand against mine.
I do not defend the ethics of the game I played,
so nearly alone, but the spirit of youth stirs my
blood as the vitagraph of memory reviews the
battlefields of the Gold Exchange. The natural
scarcity of gold as the falling price drove it from
the market while the increasing demand from the
bears put a daily premium on its use, gave us

MARKET MANIPULATION 99

large returns on the millions we held, yet even
these profits I was able to multiply by manipula-
tion. Gold is the best security in the world on
which to borrow currency and this, together with
our well-earned reputation for liberality in the
matter of rates of interest as borrowers, gave us
first call on the currency market in times of
stress when less favored borrowers were at times
compelled to sacrifice securities for cash.

When the premium I was getting for the loan
of our gold seemed less to me than the traffic
would bear, I jacked it up by the withdrawal of
a million or two or more of gold from the market,
borrowing enough currency to carry it. This
seldom put up the price, for a market always
fights against an artificial scarcity, but for the
gold I had left to lend I often received as high
as one-half, or even one per cent a day, and a
rate of nearly four hundred per cent per annum
would be counted good interest even by a syn-
dicate bank of to-day. I never allowed such ex-
treme scarcity to last for more than a day or two
at a time, since that would have pulled gold from

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100 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

the earth or the air, and have killed my own
goose of the golden eggs.

It is difficult for even those most familiar with
the subject to estimate with an approach to
accuracy the quantity available of any given sub-
stance. It is not inconceivable that a corner in
radium, the total quantity in existence of which
is often estimated in grains, would bring to light
a few overlooked pounds of the stuff. I knew
where the gold of the market was held and the
amount it would yield under a given pressure of
rates better than any other man. Yet it has
happened that when I have estimated that the
withdrawal of a million would put the rate where
I wanted it, I have been compelled to double
that amount on a following day and even to
quadruple it to produce the effect I sought.
These amounts are commonplaces to-day, but
when checks invaded millions at that time they
were counted of importance and a single one
which we drew on October 9, 1866, for $3,803,-
283.34 on the Fourth National Bank stood for

MARKET MANIPULATION 101

years, so far as my knowledge goes, as the record
amount so paid by any private firm.

Sometimes other brokers, holding lesser
amounts of gold, proposed syndicate arrange-
ments under which each of us agreed upon a
minimum rate, say an eighth or a quarter per
cent per diem, below which we would lend no
gold, but would borrow money to carry it if
necessary. I fought shy of these alliances and
rarely made them, since the stock of gold held by
the others being relatively small, they usually
loaned it all while I carried over a million or so to
maintain rates for their benefit. There were
those who appreciated this, who having loaned all
their own gold, volunteered to share with me pro
rata the loss of premium and cost of carrying the
gold that I held over for our mutual benefit.

My heart warms to the memory of these fair
dealing men while it is chilled by the thought of
the sanctimonious member of one such group
whose interest at that time was next to mine in
amount. We were holding the loaning rate by

102 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

agreement for a few days at a quarter per cent,
but gold was leaking into the market and the
loaning rate was only maintained by my locking
up half a million or so more every day, while
my associate of the hour was lending every dollar
of his. I learned that while keeping the letter
of his agreement with me he was violating its
spirit by offering other inducements to borrow-
ers, such as the loan of money at low rates. I
knew, too, that he often loaned more gold than
he had, trusting to reborrow such amounts at
lower rates after the demand of the morning had
been supplied. This was occasionally profitable
but dangerous and through this habit of his I
was able to square accounts with him.

One day it happened that while he was wait-
ing to reborrow gold that he had overloaned ear-
lier in the day the loan rate, instead of going
down to an eighth or a sixteenth, rose to three-
eighths bid with no gold in sight. Then my
quondam friend came to me and benignantly
said he could use two hundred thousand gold for
me at my full rate of a quarter per cent a day.

MARKET MANIPULATION 103

When I told him I had none to loan he left
me in some agitation. When he returned, the
bid for a day's use of gold had risen to one-half
per cent and the time for delivery was near.
This time his manner was ingratiating as he ex-
plained that he had overloaned two hundred
thousand by mistake at a quarter per cent and
trusted that as his associate I would save him
from loss by letting him have the gold at the
same rate. I told him that as his associate I
had been carrying a big load of my own gold at
heavy cost that he might get a quarter per cent
a day on his. I added that if he paid me about
one per cent over night for the two hundred
thousand he had overloaned by mistake it would
about square matters between us.

I don't remember the exact words of his heated
reply nor what would happen before he would
pay me two thousand dollars for the use of two
hundred thousand gold, but I do recall that he
asked me what my father, a minister of the gos-
pel, would say if he knew what a wicked advan-
tage I was trying to take of a man of the same

104 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

faith as his own. After a few more trifling
amenities he hastened away, his last words being
a superfluous declaration that he would have no
more agreements with me to hold gold from the
market. He hurried to the Exchange to borrow
his gold while I sent word to a broker in the loan
crowd to lend two hundred thousand gold for
one per cent over night and ten minutes later 1
sent the gold to the office of the man with whom
I had the controversy.

That loan of two hundred thousand gold at
the rate of over three hundred per cent per an-
num frightened several large borrowers so that
it was easy to get high rates for time loans. I
loaned one lot of a million at five per cent for
thirty days and lesser amounts at the same rate
for that and shorter terms. I supplied so much
of the demand that when I had delivered the gold
I had loaned and poured on the loan market the
rest that I had locked up in loans the metal be-
came so plentiful that for a time it loaned flat,
that is without interest on either the gold or the
currency involved in the loan. This was hard

MARKET MANIPULATION 105

on the firm which had just paid fifty thousand
dollars bonus for a loan worth next to nothing
and harder yet for my devout friend who long
prayed in vain for his daily quarter per cent.

It was often needful to make gold plentiful
for a time lest a flood from abroad, attracted by
continued high rates, should swamp the loan mar-
ket. So far as our interests were concerned nat-
ural causes, which I have sought to explain, made
gold plentiful when we needed to have it so and
scarce when scarcity most profited us and yet I
look back with the feeling that I cooperated effi-
ciently with nature in maintaining the conditions
that benefited us.

During all the years of our activity in and
manipulation of the gold market I remember
but one occasion when its domination was at-
tempted by another. That was the ill-advised
act of a Secretary of the Treasury in pitting the
treasury against that law of the universe known
as Gresham's. Of this I shall write fully in an-
other chapter. The Black Friday fiasco of the
Fisk and Gould welchers was no more a Wall

106 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

Street operation than dynamiting the banks
would have been. Of this, too, in its turn I shall
write.

From the first the delivery of coin was irk-
some. It was impossible to open each bag sup-
posed to contain $5,000 in gold. It was thrown
on the scales and rejected if light, but there
might be sections of lead pipe inside. Each
bag was tagged and when received a boy
marked on it the date and the party from which
it came, that is if there was time. When some
one opened the bag and found it short a claim
for reclamation started back through the scores
of houses named on the dozen tags in the bunch.
Much of the gold in the bags was "chicken feed"
as dollar gold coins were dubbed.

Often a bag burst in the hands of a boy as he
was rushing along sidewalk or street to deliver
it. As five thousand tiny pieces of coin spread
out on a crowded sidewalk it seemed a wonder
that half could be saved. But the miracle was
the other way for seldom was a dollar lost. The
accident happened often to us but so far as I

MARKET MANIPULATION 107

can recall every coin was recovered. The crowd
understood and a ring was instantly formed leav-
ing within its circle every coin on sidewalk or
street. Sometimes scattered coins were kicked
toward the center, but if any one stooped to pick
up a piece a savage warning from the rest of the
circle straightened him up. The boy with the
gold knelt on the sidewalk tossing into his hat
the coins as he gathered them up. Sometimes
he responded with a nod to the voice of a friend
in the crowd and thereafter there were two at
work.

Our daily receipts and deliveries of gold were
sometimes measured by millions and each million
represented the handling of two tons of gold,
which in dollar coins would have taken a man a
month to count. Gold was hurled back and
forth between offices, the same bags reappearing
at our office and at those of other large dealers
several times in a day. As each night the gold
rested in substantially the same vaults the folly
of the labor and risk of swinging it around the
circle each day is obvious. Some crude clearing

108 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

was done between the larger houses and our first
work of the day was offsetting our purchases and
sales so far as possible with each house and not-
ing the resultant balance to be received or deliv-
ered. Then boys were sent around to the houses
to which we owed the larger amounts and con-
versations would run like this,

"Marquand and Dimock owe you two hundred
thousand gold, Woerishoeffer. Who've you got
it going to?"

* 'We've got a hundred going to Minzesheimer,
fifty to Dunn, a hundred and fifty to Lock-
wood — "

"We can due-bill that to Lockwood."

"Fifty to Pete Myers—"

"We've got forty coming from him, we'll due-
bill that and send you ten gold. Will you start
the due-bills?"

"No, you start 'em and if you've got ten gold
in the office rush it around."

"Have it here in ten minutes."

Due-bills would then be drawn in this form :

MARKET MANIPULATION 109

"Good for one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars in gold.

Marquand and Dimock.
To
Charles Woerishoeffer & Co.

To
Lockwood & Co.

To
Marquand & Dimock."

This due-bill with one for forty thousand for
Myers and ten thousand gold would be sent to
Woerishoeffer, who would pay for them as two
hundred thousand dollars coin. Later in the
day the due-bills would come back to us through
Lockwood and Myers, when we would pay for
them as so much gold. Often the due-bills went
through half a dozen or more hands and in times
of scarcity a large percentage of the deliveries
of gold were cleared in this crude way.

CHAPTER VI

THE FIRST CORNER IN CURRENCY

The first attempt of the Exchange to relieve
its members from the risk of handling large sums
in gold coin was its recognition of the Bank of
New York as an official depository of the metal
and making its certified checks in amounts of
five thousand dollars each a good delivery on all
contracts in gold when not otherwise specified.
The bank supplied dealers with checks for five
thousand dollars each, which were uniform in
design with a space at the end reserved for the
bank certification. Coin was still used for de-
livery in many cases, which grew fewer week by
week.

Whatever gold our firm held over night,

whether coin or checks, we deposited in the bank,

drawing our own new checks against it on the

following day. I then explained this deposit of

no

THE FIRST CORNER IN CURRENCY 111

the checks of others and the substitution of our
own as a precaution against forgery and when it
did save us from a big risk, if not a heavy loss,
I accepted felicitations on my foresight. Yet
I sadly fear that my motive was vanity and a
desire to increase the prestige of the firm by
causing as much as possible of the gold in cir-
culation to be represented by our checks.

It was in connection with the failure of the
great house of Ketcham, Son and Co., brought
about by the forgeries of its managing member,
that the risk to us came. We loaned $100,-
000 to young Ketcham, on gold, just before
the crash came, but before drawing the check
for the loan our cashier told Ketcham's mes-
senger of our rule to deposit all gold checks
and after this had been reported word came back
to us that the loan was off. From the develop-
ments of the next few days there is little doubt
that the checks offered us as security were for-
geries.

"There's a sweet little cherub that sits up aloft,
To keep watch for the life of poor Jack, — "

112 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

and so many bits of sheer good luck happened
to me that I came to think that I owned the mate
to that cherub. I may add here, however, that
some time later my cherub went out of business.
Happening in the office about noon one day, I
saw standing by the cashier's window, one John
Ross, a member of the Gold Exchange, to whom
on the previous day I had sold a hundred thou-
sand gold. The cashier was just pushing to-
ward Ross a pile of gold checks when I laid my
hand on them and pushed them back. Then
picking up a check which I saw was drawn by
John Ross and apparently certified by his bank,
for the value of the gold I had sold him, I re-
turned it to him, saying:

"It is a rule of this office, Mr. Ross, not to de-
liver large amounts of gold over the counter.
We will send it for you to any house in the Street
with which we do business."

"Isn't my check good?" he asked.

"Check is all right, but some day one may
come in that isn't and then we'll be sorry we
didn't stick to our rules."

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THE FIRST CORNER IN CURRENCY 113

That afternoon Ross skipped for South
America with some half million of gold, leaving
three quarters of a million of his own worthless
checks with their forged certification to spread
ruin in the Street.

In the matter of Mumford, too, who "skipped
by the light of the moon," my cherub stood by
me. There was a delay one day in making our
last deposit in the bank and when I asked the rea-
son the cashier told me he was waiting for a check
of Mumford's to be made good, and that we had
a boy waiting at his bank for him to make his ac-
count good. I went around to the bank where
a line of boys, all with Mumford checks, were
waiting for him to make a deposit. Taking the
check from our boy I ran to Mumford's office.
It was in charge of two or three very much agi-
tated clerks. I soon learned that Mumford had
left the office with the gold he had received for
his worthless checks. The clerks showed me
that nothing of value was left, but when I asked
if any one owed him anything, a boy in the office
said in a low tone which I happened to hear :

114 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

"Dunn hasn't paid for that ten gold."

I broke for Dunn's office just as another bro-
ker appeared on the same errand as mine.
Bread cast upon the water sometimes comes
back, in spite of the proverb to that effect, and
I was glad to remember as I sprinted for the
office of Lee S. Dunn & Co. that only the day
previous I had loaned him at simple interest
some money he needed, even though a small pre-
mium was being bid for loans at the time. I
burst into Dunn's office and seeing him behind
the counter, exclaimed, as I scratched our en-
dorsement "without recourse" on the back of the
Mumford check:

"Give me your check for this one, Dunn, and
pay Mumford what you owe him with his own
check."

Dunn had sense and without even looking a
question the check was drawn, signed, and passed
over to me in record time, and as I left his office
I collided with another broker whose errand
was the same as mine, but who hadn't run quite
as fast.

THE FIRST CORNER IN CURRENCY 115

In all the daily tossing about by boys of mil-
lions of gold in bags and checks, often without
registry, I do not recall that we ever lost a dol-
lar. Sometimes at the close of business we had
a surplus of gold or were short of it, but except-
ing in two instances the error was corrected be-
fore the end of the day. One Saturday when
transactions had been heavy, $55,000 gold was
missing. We analyzed deliveries and accounts
in vain, working over them well into Sunday.
Then we telegraphed questions to the boys who
had made deliveries, and from one who lived in
Morristown came the reply:

"Deposited fifty-five in Bank of New York
and forgot to enter it."

The other instance was peculiar, involving a
curious coincidence. A shortage of $25,000 was
discovered in our gold account in the Bank of
New York arising from an error in the footings
of three days before. The mistake was not dis-
covered on the day it was made because on that
day it was balanced by the disappearance of that
exact amount of gold. What had become of

116 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

that gold was a hard nut to crack. We had a
late session the night the loss was discovered for
every one was anxious. We sent our memories
back to the third day and lived it over again.
Step by step, from delivery book, check book,
and memories we traced transactions one by one.
Every delivery had been made and every deliv-
ery properly paid for, but we had paid for twen-
ty-five thousand more than we had delivered and
that twenty-five had melted away. Transac-
tions had been large, and deliveries so late that
there had been much giving of receipts and some
confusion.

I became convinced that we had received all
the gold we had paid for and that the missing
gold had been delivered in excess to some house
to which we had a large lot going. There were
three houses to which we had delivered lots of
one hundred thousand or more where the mis-
take might have happened. In all other cases
the chance of the error had been substantially
eliminated. Whatever house had that thirty-
five or forty thousand dollars in value of ours

THE FIRST CORNER IN CURRENCY 117

had been in no haste to find the owner of the
property and it seemed judicious to present our
claim in the form of a demand rather than an ap-
peal for information. The heads of two of the
houses were liberal and likeable and offices are
always like their heads. The third man was no-
toriously tricky, although he had an international
reputation. I called first on one of the liberal
houses :

"Lyons, why don't your people send us that
$25,000 delivered you by mistake? It ought to
have been returned two days ago."

"I don't know what you are talking about,
Dimock. We have been receiving a lot of gold
from you, but it has all been paid for and our ac-
count balances to a dollar. You must have mis-
taken the house."

"I'll go back and find out," said I.

My next call resulted similarly, but as soon as
I entered the office of the tricky man I knew I
was on the trail of the gold. My somewhat per-
emptory demand was met by the lame excuse
that they had been doing so much in gold that

118 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

their accounts had not been made up for two or
three days, but that if they found they were
twenty-five gold over they would send it to me.
I replied that I had no interest in their accounts,
but that they had $25,000 of gold that belonged
to us and I was not going to wait any
longer for it. Ten minutes later the gold was
in our office and then I went around with my
apologies to the houses which by implication I
had accused. My interview with Lyons was
amusing :

''Oh, Lyons, it was a mistake about that gold.
It was another house that had it. I am sorry I
bothered you about it."

"No bother at all, but I am very glad you
found your gold. Are you sure you made any
mistake, though, in coming here?': and Lyons
laughed heartily as he asked the question.

"What do you mean?" I asked in some confu-
sion, for I saw that he was onto my method.

"I made up my mind after you left that you
were out twenty-five gold and didn't know where
it had gone and that you started out to

THE FIRST CORNER IN CURRENCY 119

charge it to every one you had dealt with till you
struck the right man. How many did you have
to try?"

"Hit it the third trial," said I, "but I hope
you don't feel hurt that I tried it on you. I
came here first because I thought this house was
the least likely to make the mistake and I wanted
to feel sure before I tackled the place where I
thought it was."

"There is no feeling here. I only admired
your method and thought how I would try it my-
self when the need came. Tell me where you
found it finally and all will be forgiven," but I
merely shook my head while we both laughed as
I left the office.

I so often locked up our gold, with a view to
its safety and our own, but to the frequent em-
barrassment of the bears, that it is a wonder
we were not treated to our own medicine at
times. And yet it did happen once in a way
to give me a bad quarter of an hour. The
trouble was caused by a locomotive on the Jersey
Central which blew out its cylinder head and de-

120 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

layed for some hours the traffic on the road. I
was borrowing a few millions of gold and only
reached the Gold Room after every one had ar-
ranged his accounts for the day. I always at-
tended to our loans myself and had made no pro-
vision for absence.

As I was not on hand to renew my borrowings
of gold the holders had loaned it elsewhere or
arranged to have it carried outside. The loan
market was almost bare of offerings and I dare
not bid it up on myself, so I took to the street
and raced around among the houses most likely
to have gold over. I picked up a goodly
amount, but at 2 p. m. was three quarters of a
million short, leaving fifty thousand to be bor-
rowed and delivered for every minute of time
that was left me.

It amuses me now to think of the wild way in
which I dashed into offices, demanding all the
gold they had over, grabbing and running with
it if it were in checks, but if it were partly in
coin telling them to send it to Drexel, or Shafer,
or Fisk and Hatch for our account on receipt.

THE FIRST CORNER IN CURRENCY 121

All large dealers were likely to have gold over
after their deliveries had been made since it was
needful to provide in excess of their book re-
quirements to allow for deliveries that would be
made too late to be again sent out. Of this sur-
plus gold I had borrowed a lot, contingent on its
coming in but with no forfeit if it failed, and in
the last minute, after my deliveries had been
made, it poured into the office by tens and fifties.

I took everything that came, even though it
were past the hour and I had to borrow money
to carry it, for I was thankful that we had pulled
through without defaulting on a delivery and
I knew it was due to the friendliness of offices
which we always sought to preserve by liberality
of dealing. Then I stood by the cashier's desk,
noting the receipts as they came in for the gold
I had ordered delivered in my wild flight through
the street. Often came a message like this:

"Vermilye delivered you fifty gold without
getting a receipt."

"All right, Vermilye, here is your check, and
tell your people we are much obliged to them."

122 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

Only once was I alarmed by a threatened cor-
ner in gold against us and the method of our
escape conveys a warning which the nation might
well take to heart to-day. We were largely
short of gold when a group of operators who
were long of both gold and stocks arranged to
call in the gold they were lending me and by bor-
rowing and locking up the free gold in the mar-
ket compel me to climb for the gold I was bor-
rowing. They believed that by cornering gold
they could boom the market for it and that the
stocks they held would follow in its wake. But
I knew the cost of cornering gold better than
they, or any other men that lived, and I knew
how a scarcity of currency stood like a specter in
the path of whoever attempted it. I thought to
make money so tight that the last dollar of
hoarded gold would come into the market for
sale or loan. I took the question to bed with me
and worked it out in my dreams where always I
solved such problems.

The plan became luminous and expanded.
There was little currency in the city and I would

THE FIRST CORNER IN CURRENCY 123

borrow it all, yes, more than there was, for the
nominal reserve of the banks was small and its
available reserve almost nothing. They counted
as reserve the gold in their vaults which belonged
to customers or was held on special deposit, and
besides was worth a large premium, making it
no more available as a reserve than were the
buildings the banks were housed in. The old de-
mand notes which were available for the pay-
ment of customs were in the same category and
were also counted as reserve.

I would borrow ten million dollars, perhaps
twenty. The interest would amount to from
two to four thousand dollars a day, but I could
make that up easily, for the money tightness
would knock spots out of the stock market and
I would sell a few thousand shares before I be-
gan the squeeze. I would select for sale the
stocks that the pool were holding. It would be
fine to collect the cost of the campaign from the
enemy. There would be no trouble about secur-
ity for the loans. I had often borrowed on our
own certified checks when providing cash for a

124 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

big campaign. Then when the gold or other se-
curity came in it could be substituted in a few
minutes for the checks.

It was better than borrowing the money, with-
out taking it up till we needed it, for so long as
our certified check was out our bank had the use
of the money and the credit for their profit
thereon was reflected upon us. I planned to sub-
stitute greenbacks for the certified checks on the
following day since I didn't suppose that lock-
ing up a few bank credits would have much effect
on the market. In this I was mistaken as you
shall presently see. I couldn't deposit green-
backs on the day I borrowed the money, since
money so borrowed was payable through the
clearing house the next morning and I could not
ask my bank for any large amount of greenbacks
against such checks until the day after I had de-
posited them. Often the clearest dream-plan
was hopelessly muddy in the morning light, but
this bore the test and I began upon it in the first
hour of the business day.

My first call was upon a wealthy German

THE FIRST CORNER IN CURRENCY 125

banker, who promptly loaned me one and a half
millions for three days and promised me another
million for the following day. My next two
calls gave me a million each for the day with
promises of more the next. Then a big import-
ing house loaned me a million and a half, also
with promises of more the next day. Men never
get over the childish vanity of dealing in large
sums and it was this fact that enabled me earlv
in the day to secure the loan of nearly ten million
dollars with promises for the following day that
would nearly double the amount. For about
half of these loans I gave our own certified
checks as security, expecting to substitute green-
backs on the following day. Several of the
houses making the larger loans agreed to draw
the greenbacks from their own banks the next
day and seal them up if I wished, subject to my
order on payment of the loan.

When I got back to my office, although it was
yet early in the day, trouble had begun. Every
dollar of the near ten millions I had borrowed
had been called from some one else and stocks

126 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

and gold were already tumbling while money
was not to be had. Later it loaned largely at
one per cent and even as high as three per cent
a day, or about a thousand per cent per annum.
Every purpose I had in view had been accom-
plished, yet not a greenback had been drawn nor
a dollar taken from the banks. Yet I had cre-
ated a panic and the extent of the distress it occa-
sioned amazed me. The president of one of our
banks who knew of my purpose to accumulate
greenbacks and to whom I had confided its ex-
tent, assured me that the banks could not re-
spond to such a demand and that persistence in
my plan would compel suspension all around. I
notified the loaners of money that the loans would
be paid the next day and no greenbacks drawn,
but though I offered to pay interest on my en-
gagements of money for the following day,
which I had decided not to use, there was none
who would accept it, since one and all were glad
to withdraw.

On the morning after the sudden panic there
was raving in the editorial and financial columns

THE FIRST CORNER IN CURRENCY 127

of the journals of the city. The Times pro-
claimed that a clique in Wall Street had the com-
merce of the country by the throat and compared
its control to that of Bismarck over the lesser
German states, while the Herald made wild
guesses at the names of the conspirators and de-
clared that measures should be taken to secure
their sequestration in the town with a musical
name on the east bank of the Hudson.

So crude a contraction of currency would not
be possible to-day and even when Jay Gould imi-
tated it three years later it inspired no terror
and the effect was comparatively slight, but the
power to affect it on a vastly greater scale, or
to expand it indefinitely is held by an intangible
combination, if not by a single individual, be-
yond any possible control by slow-moving gov-
ernment methods. The cartoon of the cow with
its head in the grain fields of the West and its
udder in Wall Street has long applied to the
people and the pool. And the cow has been
milked so adroitly that though a cow it has
purred like a pussy-cat.

CHAPTER VII

"iVE SOLD THE TREASURY DRY!"

Carlyle wrote : "America is where they un-
dertake to amend fate and avert doomsday by
act of Congress," and an American authority has
written :

"The history of our national economic and
financial policy since the Civil War is an almost
unbroken record of fatuous ignorance, empirical
experimentation, and insolent disregard of the
best established inductions of science."

We have made all the mistakes that are hinted
at. The issue of National Bank notes was so
great an economic mistake that it doubled the
cost of the Civil War and the end is not yet.
Salmon P. Chase, the father of the National
Bank Act, declared that procuring its passage
was the greatest mistake of his life, that it had
built up a monopoly that affected every interest
in the country.

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THE NEW

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TM.S

"I'VE SOLD THE TREASURY DRY!" 129

I have in mind two mistakes which were hon-
estly made and worth all they cost in the lesson
they taught. On June 20, 1864, Congress, mis-
taking the symptoms for the disease, made of
transactions in gold a penal offense unless made
in the office of buyer or seller. I had warning
of the probable passage of the bill and stood
from under, closing all the contracts but buying
all the gold I could pay for without borrowing
in the market. I believed that so medieval a
measure would put up the price of gold, but had
not the courage of my convictions. Within a
few days the price rose nearly a hundred per
cent and when an affrighted Congress hastily
repealed the bill it had passed eleven days be-
fore, the price fell sixty-five per cent in a day.
Dealings did not cease during the days they were
under ban, but were carried on in the street on
a hypothetical basis. As I met a fellow broker
I would say:

"If I were in your office I would sell you
twenty thousand gold at a hundred and seventy-
five."

130 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

"If I were at my office I would bid you a hun-
dred and seventy for the lot," might be his re-
ply to which I might answer:

"If I were in your office I would let you have
it for seventy-three and that is the best I would
do."

"Then I would take it," would be followed by
memorandums by each of us and on the follow-
ing day a messenger from our office would ap-
pear at the office of the broker with whom I had
talked in the street and would offer him twenty
thousand gold at one hundred and seventy-three
which offer would be accepted and the gold paid
for.

The other governmental mistake which I had
in mind was made by Hugh McCulloch, Secre-
tary of the Treasury, when he attempted to hold
the price of gold down to 131. His instructions
to P. M. Myers, his agent in the Gold Room,
were to supply any and all demands for coin at

131 per cent. The tendency of gold, based on
a legitimate demand, was to rise, and again and
again it slowly advanced to the Government

«T>

rVE SOLD THE TREASURY DRY!" 131

limit, only to recoil as Myers supplied the de-
mand. The price was low, unnaturally low,
held down by an artificial barrier and we were
loaded down with it, horribly loaded. Bears
were jubilant and sold freely all they could con-
veniently borrow, for had they not a call upon
the Treasury of the United States at 131 which
limited the possibility of loss on gold sold at
130% to 1/4 per cent while the chance for profit
was large?

Even the few houses that were bulls by nature
and scarcely knew how to sell short, who had al-
ways kept a certain stock of coin on hand what-
ever the outlook, laid aside their own rules for
once and sold out their gold in the belief that in
substance they held a government guarantee to
replace it. Not only was long gold sold and
short sales stimulated, but the commercial de-
mand was cut off. Importers of goods which
had to be paid for in gold postponed remittances
or borrowed the gold they must ship, hoping to
supply their requirements on better terms, as-
sured that at the worst they could always get

132 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

from the Government what they required at a
very slight advance on the then market price.

More than ever I stood alone, greater than ever
was the load I carried. Whatever reputation I
had earned through past successes faded away
for now I was only pig-headed. My sleep was
broken at night and my nerves were on edge by
day. Maintaining an unruffled demeanor in the
Gold Room was the hardest work of the day and
once or twice I broke through it. Passing a
group of brokers who were discussing the market
I overheard one say:

"A man is a fool to fight the Government,"
and I turned to him saying :

"The Government is a fool to fight Nature."

"Haven't lost your nerve?" inquired a broker
with pretended solicitude.

"Only my temper," I laughed as I passed on,
determined not to forget myself again. The one
thing that sustained and encouraged me was the
scarcity of gold which gave me my own way in
the loan market. Yet I had to be content with
moderate rates since the attempt to squeeze

"I'VE SOLD THE TREASURY DRY!" 133

out big bonuses by locking up gold would have
run the price up to the Government limit
and a few millions sold by the Treasury would
have flooded the loan market and taken from me
the liberal profit I was daily securing through
the loan of the large amount we were holding.
Sometimes I got low in my mind when I thought
what a five per cent drop in price would mean to
us and then when the reaction came I would buy
one or two hundred thousand more. My last
large purchase was of one and a half millions of a
Vanderbilt house. I was alarmed lest this might
be a lot of real gold which would injure the mar-
ket for loans and was rejoiced when I had the
pleasure of loaning the lot to the house itself at a
good stiff rate.

I had gloomy hours at the office for I was car-
rying a heavy load in reliance on economic
principles which might well be delayed in their
action bv so abnormal an event as Government
intervention. My partner had full faith in my
management, but he saw my distress and asked
what I was looking for to remove the Treasury

134 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

barrier, and I could make no more intelligent
reply than that time would show.

There was no cable beneath the Atlantic nor
wireless to work above it in those primitive days
and a steamer often brought the news of half a
week.

Such a steamer exploded a bombshell in the
gold market one memorable afternoon. It
brought news of a panic in London, of the failure
of the great house of Overend, Gurney & Co.

Every commission house, every foreign ex-
change house, and all bankers with connections
abroad were peremptorily ordered to remit gold.
Every bull, who had parted temporarily with his
cherished capital of gold, every bear who had sold
what he didn't own, every foreign merchant who
had sold his goods for currency in reliance upon
exchanging it for gold at 131 per cent, and every
speculator who believed the Government was sell-
ing real diamonds at the price of paste was repre-
sented in the frantic crowd in the Gold Room on
that afternoon of panic. A shrieking, half-
maniacal mass pressed around Peter Myers, the

"I'VE SOLD THE TREASURY DRY!" 135

Government agent, who, tall and strong though
he was, swayed baek and forth to the pressure of
struggling men. With his little sales book held
high in his left hand he strove to write in it the
names of those to whom he had made sales, to-
gether with the amount of each sale. Many
hands clutched his arms and clothing, while
twenty voices rang at once in his ears, all plead-
ing for gold.

"Let me have a million, Pete. It's all I want,
and then I'll get out of your way," was the cry
of one.

"I want a hundred, Mr. Myers. Can't you let
me have it?"

"I bid you for two millions, Peter. Have you
got my name down?"

"Please put me down for fifty thousand, My-
ers. It's all I need."

"How can I put anything down if you don't
let go of my arms? I'm not going to run away.
You'll get all you want if you'll give me a chance
to write," shouted Myers. But the mob grew
larger and the pressure greater, though those

136 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

nearest Peter kept others from clutching his
arms. Fast and faster he jotted down names
and amounts while his face grew white and hands
and voice trembled as he hastily added the
columns in his little book and noted the porten-
tous footings.

As I stood quietly outside the frenzied group
many an excited broker bid me a higher price
than that at which the Government agent was of-
fering it. One broker bid me a hundred and
thirty-two for a million. It looked like easy
money. I had only to sell it and then catching
Peter Myers's eye buy it in at a profit of ten
thousand dollars. And Peter was a good friend
of mine who would be quick to see my uplifted
hand and recognize my voice.

But I wasn't to be tempted. I had borne the
burden in the heat of the day and was entitled to
the fulness of my reward. I might fail to get
back the gold if I sold it and I did not care in this
hour of my triumph to compete for the gold
which others so sadly needed. Already the Gov-
ernment walls were crumbling and from the class

«T'

I'VE SOLD THE TREASURY DRY!" 137

of buyers who came out of the hurly-burly with
their wants satisfied I fancied that Myers was
selecting the smaller bids to supply and that the
end must be near. Yet it came with a shock
when the Government agent threw up his hands,
exclaiming wTith a voice that trembled :

"I've sold the Treasury dry!"

The long strain was over and the biggest profit
our house ever saw was in sight, but I hadn't time
to be happy, for the morrow was a day to be
dreaded. Forty million dollars in gold were
coming out of the Treasury to be paid for with
fifty-two million dollars of currency to be taken
from the street. Currency was not scarce and
the banks could carry the gold down to the last
dollar of their currency reserve, since the gold
itself up to its par value was a lawful reserve and
yet I couldn't see where fifty-two millions were
coming from, and what seemed worse I couldn't
see where the millions we were sure to need were
to be found. For the shorts had been frightened
to cover and most of our loans of gold would be
returned and we be called upon for the currency

138 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

deposited against it. Not all the shorts had been
able to cover their lines by purchase from the
Government and after Myers had withdrawn the
upward sweep was so rapid that many held back
from buying hoping for a reaction in the price
which would reduce their losses.

I was early in the field the next morning to re-
new my loans as far as possible and by allowing
liberal interest on the currency held against it
I accomplished all that I could hope for. Yet
when the notifications of gold to be returned us
were all in, we were four million dollars short of
the day's requirements and money seemed unob-
tainable. I had never appealed to our banks
when in need of cash, although the balances we
kept had been very large in preparation for the
day when our need should be urgent. That time
appeared to have come and I called on the bank
where we kept our largest account. As I en-
tered the president's room he threw up his hands
exclaiming :

"Don't tell me that you, too, have come for
money!"

"I'VE SOLD THE TREASURY DRY!" 139

"I want four millions, though I can get some
of it outside and our other banks will help, but
my chief reliance is on you." I remember how
worn he looked as he quietly replied :

"We have got to give you whatever you must
have, but don't ask us for a dollar that you can
possibly help. The demands on us are simply
distressing."

I am happy to recall that instead of asking him
for money that afternoon we left the bank a large
balance, perhaps half a million dollars. It was
well for us that day that I had cast much bread
upon the financial waters by my always liberal
treatment of loaners of money in respect to in-
terest paid and security given. House after
house called their other loans and gave all to us
at simple interest, although large commissions
were bid by strong houses for a single day's loan
of money. On that day, too, and thereafter
throughout a rapid advance of thirty-eight per
cent, money poured into our office. Gold loans
were made and kept at the market as it is called.
Thus, when we loaned a broker a million gold,

140 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

the price in the market being 130 per cent we
received a currency check for $1,300,000. Then
if the market price rose to say 135 per cent a boy
from our office would call upon the broker to
whom we had loaned the gold and say :

"Please make Marquand and Dimock's gold
at the market," upon which a check would be
given him for $50,000, making the loan at 135
per cent. There were many of these calls to be
made, though seldom for so large an amount, and
occasionally it happened that after a boy had
made twenty such calls and returned to the office
with a score of checks footing up one or two hun-
dred thousand dollars the market had again ad-
vanced so that he had to again make the rounds.

Perhaps never before had so much money been
so quickly made by one so young and that I lost
all proper sense of its value was inevitable.
That I was fated to lose it fits into my own phi-
losophy, but the manner and the overwhelming-
ness of its going staggers my comprehension to-
day. I laid the foundation of the trouble to
come just after a period of our greatest success.

"I'VE SOLD THE TREASURY DRY!" 141

Mr. Marquand was startled by the figures of our
profits which I laid before him. He insisted
that they were too large by several hundred thou-
sand dollars and it was my pleasing duty to con-
vince him that he was richer than he thought. I
then suggested that we had more money in the
business than we needed and I even added that
so much loose money was a temptation to over-
speculation, upon which he looked into my eyes
for a moment and then indulged in one of his rare
hearty laughs.

We drew out a lot of money and from that
hour our interests diverged. It happened that
at just this time Thomas Allen, ex-Governor of
Missouri and a brother-in-law of my partner,
proposed to him to finance the building of certain
links and connections to railroads which he had
bought of the State of Missouri on liberal terms.
The scheme was a promising one and offered
profitable employment to my partner's money
and he adopted it. Soon the drafts for construc-
tion exceeded the estimates and the money of the
firm became largely involved.

142 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

I waited for the offer of an interest and the
suggestion that we join forces and promote the
Iron Mountain Railroad together, and was
piqued that no such offer was made. I learned
with deep regret when too late, that this alliance
had been his wish and hope, but that he thought
it was my place to propose it since his money was
already involved and that if I cared to risk mine
I should have said so.

"Our work is not design but destiny," — for
how else could the chance of an unspoken word
have separated those whose natures were in har-
mony and whose interests had long been and
should have continued as one. My means added
to my partners would have made easy those early
days of the railroad promotion and the subse-
quent financing of the enterprise through bond
issues would have been play to me where to him it
meant a period of much anxiety. Yet in the
end it recorded a great success for it shared in
the nation-wide railroad boom and the profits of
the promotion ran well into the millions.

My own surplus money burned holes in my

"I'VE SOLD THE TREASURY DRY!** 143

pocket and seldom has the proverb, "Easy come,
easy go," received more apposite illustration.
From promoting a church to buying a castle,
from street railroads in Boston to Sea Islands in
Carolina, my check book was always busy. In-
cidentally it was lavish when my sympathy was
appealed to and for all such gifts I have nothing
but scorn to-day, now that I know what real sym-
pathy may mean and from behind the scenes have
witnessed the hollow mockery of advertised phi-
lanthropy.

My first large investment was a good one. A
Boston firm brought to my attention an oppor-
tunity to buy an interest in the street railroads
of that city which opened a clear path to their
control, and I acted upon their suggestion. The
advice was given in good faith, the scheme was
a shrewd one, and the possibilities of profit were
great, but I failed to carry the project through
for reasons that will appear.

The Sea Island gold brick cost me a fortune
and its story is worth telling by way of illustrat-
ing the fable of the camel which was allowed to

144 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

put his head in a tent which he soon proceeded to
occupy. A friend for whom I had a great affec-
tion opened a deposit account in our office.
When the cashier advised me of a draft that over-
drew the account I told him to pay it, that my
friend would be sure to make good. With each
new draft that came in I repeated the authority,
until when first I gave serious attention to the
account the amount of the overdraft was appall-
ing. The only security I could get was the Sea
Island Cotton Company and when I tried with
more money to pull it through I found it too rot-
ten to hold together.

My purchase of a castle is the story of a hoo-
doo. Beautifullv located on the east bank of the
Hudson at Tarrytown, I thought it then, as I
think it to-day, nearly half a century later, the
most attractive edifice on that historic stream.
It has been familiar for nearly a generation un-
der its title of "The Castle" to all readers of mag-
azines in this country. It ruined its builder and
was thereupon dubbed Herrick's Folly. It
passed to Dr. Maynard, inventor of the Maynard

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"I'VE SOLD THE TREASURY DRY!'' 145

rifle, and about the day he paid for it his contract
with the Government which was paying him
largely was abrogated. I bought it of Dr.
Maynard and there followed what you shall hear.
It then passed to the Third Avenue Savings
Bank which soon had troubles of its own. Later
"the good Mr. Hatch," as Rufus of that ilk was
fond of calling him, became possessed of it and
then came the failure of Fisk and Hatch and the
resignation of the latter as President of the Stock
Exchange. Not until the castle was bought for
a school was the Spirit of Evil that presided over
it exorcised. Thrice have I purchased or built
costly edifices as residences for my family and
myself and three times has fate stepped in and
taken them for schools, wherefore I have come
to look upon myself as an instrument of Provi-
dence designed for the promotion of education.
My possession of "The Castle" was brought
about in this wise. Through a mutual friend I
was invited to spend the night with Dr. May-
nard. As we drove up to the porte cochere in
the early evening I saw through the window sit-

146 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

ting by an open fire with a book in his hand a
man of patriarchal appearance. He wore some
manner of flowing garment and beneath his long,
iron-gray beard a crimson scarf was loosely knot-
ted. There was a suggestion of the Orient in
the surroundings and in the stateliness of his re-
ception of me. He was a wonderful conversa-
tionalist and he had me hypnotized from the
start. After a long evening that passed like a
dream I was conducted to the guest chamber,
overlooking the Tappan Zee then flooded with
the light of the full moon. I sat by the window
almost the night through. I was a silent guest
at the breakfast table until the doctor asked me
how I liked the place, when I replied:

"I only wish it were for sale."

"It is," was the reply.

"How much?" I asked and I have forgotten
the price he named, remembering only that it was
much more than a hundred thousand dollars and
that I accepted it at once. With equal prompt-
ness I paid seven thousand dollars for the carved
oak furniture in the mansion. In one of Dr.

"I'VE SOLD THE TREASURY DRY!" 147

Maynard's protean forms he was an architect
and the plans he had made for an addition to the
Castle fascinated me and I employed him to
carry them out. His careful estimate of the cost
extended to dollars and footed up to something
like twenty-five thousand of them. The work
progressed at a cost of a thousand dollars a day
and I gave it little thought during the week, but
on Saturday nights went up to inspect it. For
twenty weeks the work continued and was little
above the foundation, although the original cost
of the place had been doubled when calamity
came and I left the quarried, matched and
dressed stone in heaps to find inglorious service
in the building of cisterns for the country
round.

CHAPTER VIII

A WALL STREET POOL

I was approached one day by a member of
a firm to which I was accustomed to give large
orders in gold, who told me that he was commis-
sioned to offer me a share in a pool that was be-
ing formed by some of the strongest financial
interests in the city. I was invited to be one of
a party of six to contribute $600,000 to a pool
for the purchase and sale of stock of the Atlan-
tic Mail Steamship Company, the operation to
be conducted by one of the subscribers upon the
New York Stock Exchange. I knew nothing
of the value of the stock, the names of the pro-
posed parties to the operation merely interested
me and I turned down the proposal.

The subject was renewed, the value of the
stock dilated upon, and I was told of the large
profits that had been quickly made in a previous

148

A WALL STREET POOL 149

turn of the same character. Again I declined
and again there was held up before me the knowl-
edge of the steamship business in general and of
the Atlantic Mail Steamship Company in par-
ticular, possessed by two of the proposed pool
members, the vast sums owned or controlled by
two others, and the manipulative skill on the Ex-
change of the fifth member. I was assured that
the stock would be made very active on the Ex-
change and that there would be very large com-
mission orders for our house if we wanted them.
This interested me, for although we never exe-
cuted orders on the floor of the Exchange for
other members, yet we gave out a great many,
and I was especially desirous of sending such
business to a young firm whose Stock Exchange
member was a relative of mine. This was the
bait that led me into the trap and I authorized
the broker to sign the pool paper for me after
the other names were down.

A copy of the pool paper is before me as I
write. It is very simple, and appears to limit
my liability to the $100,000 which I agreed to

150 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

contribute if, and as, the accumulation of stock
caused the need to arise. My name is the last
on the document. Above it is the signature of
the head of a big importing house, from whom in
the way of Wall Street business I had often bor-
rowed single sums exceeding a million dollars.
He assured me of his confidence in the safety and
success of the operation. The president of a
great savings bank, who had signed, told me that
he and his trustees looked upon the stock as gilt-
edged collateral and were always ready to loan
upon it. The largest steamship owner in the
country, who was the only man who ever fought
Commodore Vanderbilt to a standstill, the Stock
Exchange member who was to manage the pool,
and the president of the steamship company com-
pleted the list.

The operation began and the stock was made
active on the Exchange in the way that was cus-
tomary then as it is now. Orders to buy
and orders to sell were given daily to brokers on
the floor and the price of the stock was lifted and
lowered as a boy dangles a baited hook before

A WALL STREET POOL 151

the eyes of a trout. In a few days I was noti-
fied that accumulation of stock compelled a call
upon me for $25,000 of my subscription. A
similar call was repeated at very brief intervals
until my whole subscription had been safely cor-
ralled. If I had exercised the intelligence of
a mud turtle at this time I should have seen the
game that was being played against me. For
it had not then been possible to accumulate suf-
ficient stock to justify a call for the whole
$600,000 of pool money.

I was then busy in my office and beginning to
be worried over the prospective cost of my addi-
tions to the Castle and gave little thought to
the Atlantic Mail operation. It was brought
sharply to my attention by a cry of distress from
my cousin's firm. The manager of the pool had
given it many orders to buy the stock on the Ex-
change, but instead of paying for the shares had
requested the firm to carry them. This had hap-
pened again and again until the total advances
were alarming. I was safely in the trap. In-
stead of having joined a pool with $600,000 in

152 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

the treasury and without commitments, I was
the victim of a reorganization of a moribund pool
that swallowed my hundred thousand dollars as
a frog gathers in a fly. When I read the other
day of the collapse of a second pool in a well-
known stock with the cold-blooded robbery of the
brokers employed, my heart stood still with the
feeling that some one was suffering as I suffered
through the Atlantic Mail pool.

Too late I made inquiries and learned what I
should have sooner discovered. John S. Ken-
nedy told me that the pool had been conceived in
sin and born in iniquity and that he had barely
escaped being caught himself. He referred me
to a prominent merchant who told me that he
had already dealt in that stock through the same
manager, and thereupon he characterized the man
in language that wouldn't have been admitted to
the mails. I told my partner of my involve-
ments which would compel me to give all my
time to straightening them out and we arranged
to dissolve partnership. In the adjustment of
accounts there was a large sum coming to me for

A WALL STREET POOL 153

part of which I took the big claim against the
cotton company and. the remainder in bonds of
the railroad my partner was promoting. He
asked me if the cotton company was good and
when I told him it was rotten he offered to stand
for half the loss. I refused to accept his offer
because I had made the advances out of friend-
ship alone and without the least business excuse.
I made my relative's firm my own and poured
in money to carry the load, hoping that some for-
tunate turn in the market would make it pos-
sible to sell the stock. The condition of the
steamship company was appalling. It owned a
fifth of the stock of the Pacific Mail Steamship
Company on which it was borrowing nearly four
million dollars of the savings bank and the im-
porting house to which I have referred. This
stock was trusteed and could not be sold, while
fear of the rivalry of the railroads then building
to the Pacific was breaking its price and the ruin
of our company was in sight. There were three
parties to the agreement to trustee stock of the
Pacific Mail, each of which held one-fifth of the

154 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

capital stock. The shares of the other two par-
ties to the compact had been released and sold,
but the trustees refused to release ours. We at-
tacked them through the courts and the press, to
the great embarrassment of the foreign exchange
house which controlled them. We then fought
in the market for the control of the Pacific Mail
and at the annual election held stock and proxies
enough to elect our candidates, provided our own
stock were not voted against us by the trustees.
The air of the room where the election was to
be held was electric, but the battle that followed
was not of ballots. It was a game of lawyers
and judges. As I recall the order of the play,
our opponents led with the service upon us of
an injunction forbidding our voting upon our
own stock. We replied with a court order pro-
hibiting their voting on our shares. They came
back at us enjoining us against enjoining them,
and our counsel fired the last shot through
a stockholder whom the injunction had not
reached, serving upon the officials the mandate
of a court which forbade them to hold any elec-

A WALL STREET POOL 155

tion at which our vote upon our own stock was
refused. The meeting was adjourned for a
brief time during which the trustees conceded the
release of our stock and our representation on the
board of the Pacific Mail. Our stock was sold
and our borrowings upon it paid, but the cost
was ruinous. Legal expenses alone exceeded
half a million dollars.

Then began for me the life of Poe's victim be-
tween daily contracting iron walls. The stock
with which I was burdened was dead and the
daily transactions on the exchange were like gal-
vanizing a corpse. The manager of the pool un-
loaded upon me his last share and professed in-
ability to bear any portion of the burden. He
left me to give the necessary orders for the daily
transactions and heartlessly refused to execute
a buying order unless I promised to take up the
stock from him. It was imperative to have daily
transactions upon the Exchange and always to
have bids on the floor for all the stock of the com-
pany that could possibly be offered, for a single
break in price would have spelled ruin.

156 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

I appealed to another member of the pool to
bear some part of his share of the burden. He
lamented that it was impossible for him to put
up any money himself, but that he could borrow
$50,000 on 1,000 shares of Atlantic Mail for me
if that would help me. He brought me the cash
and I gave him the stock as security and within
forty-eight hours had bought back through the
market the identical certificates, paying for them
$119,000. It was long before I found the pool
member to charge him with his treachery for
business had suddenly called him out of town, and
when I did find him and he attempted to throw
the blame on another I was too heart-sick to more
than comment on a single act of treachery.

Dread of the disaster which a delayed train
might precipitate induced me to take up my resi-
dence at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. From here
I sent word to the merchant member of the pool,
demanding that he come to my relief. He came
to see me and we paced the sidewalk in front of
the hotel until dawn, while he protested his in-
ability to help. He said the losses of the pool

A WALL STREET POOL 157

were over three and one-half millions, that the
shares he was already carrying involved his whole
fortune, and that to do more would ruin him.
Helpless and hopeless, I lived through the dread-
ful daily round. My ear was attuned to all
sounds that came through the cashier's window
and a low- voiced: "Von Hoffman calls a hun-
dred thousand," or "The Bank of British North
America would like to have you pay fifty on ac-
count loan of a hundred and fifty" fell upon it
like the blast of a trumpet. It was a physical
effort to keep my eyes from the clock as the hour
of one approached, after which no loans could
be called for that day.

There were other periods of suspense, as when
money had been borrowed and a boy sent out
with securities for a loan of say $100,000. The
loan envelope might have contained 700 shares
of Atlantic Mail sandwiched in with $40,000
worth of Governments and first class stocks.
Usually the boy brought back a check together
with great relief to me, but sometimes he bore a
message, "Kelly says there is too much Atlantic

158 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

Mail in that loan. Please send something else
or cancel the loan."

Finally the day and the hour came when I
could struggle no longer. First to be consid-
ered were loans from my bank and I added the
securities in the safe to the collateral which it
already held. I told the president that my fail-
ure was assured and advised him to have orders
on the Exchange at its opening to sell the stock
he held at any obtainable price as the market de-
clined, believing that thus he could realize enough
to protect the bank's loans to me. But the proj-
ect failed, for the market was broken at the open-
ing by sales for an unknown party who was
afterward discovered to be the cashier of the
bank.

CHAPTER IX

IN THE SADDLE AGAIN

Phenomenal success and power with their
adulation and flattery make it hard to face the
brutalities meted out to failure. It was in the
sixties, before that device of the devil, and the
lawyers, for the benefit of the latter, the assign-
ment was in vogue. So I faced the music and
after consulting certain creditors started out with
the proposition they suggested. My first call
was upon a house in Wall Street which was a
large dealer in Governments. The managing
partner was a Quaker, of benignant aspect and
paternal manner. The amount due his firm was
small and I felt sure he would sign my paper to
the accompaniment of kindly remarks. What
I got was something like this :

"An honest man always pays his debts in full.
We pay ours and it is a matter of principle with

159

160 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

us not to encourage reckless trading by compro-
mises."

When a business man makes "a matter of prin-
ciple" his excuse for not doing a kindly act he
has touched the lowest depths of hypocrisy and
it is useless to reason with him. I like to think
of another kind of man and an incident that oc-
curred some months before the time of which I
am writing. The cashier of a large bank in
which I was interested came to me for help to
save him from trouble at his bank. I offered to
give him the money if he would go with me to
the president of the bank and get his approval.
He told me that wouldn't do for the president
was a hard man, with no mercy. I said I would
furnish the cash if a director of the bank would
take the moral responsibility of advising it, but
not otherwise. He then said Mr. Claflin was a
director and a kindly man and he would be so
grateful if I would see him alone. I called on
Horace B. Claflin, whom I knew but slightly,
and told him the story, saying it was the man's
first slip and I believed it would be his last.

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IN THE SADDLE AGAIN 161

"Then we must give him a chance," said Claf-
lin, "and if trouble comes of it I will stand by
you."

From the office of the Quaker wolf I went to
the office of some worldly minded bankers in
William Street to whom my indebtedness was
large, bracing myself to meet the satire I ex-
pected from the cynical member of the house.
The three brothers who constituted the firm were
talking together as I entered the private office.

"Suppose you want us for pallbearers!" said
the cynic, turning to me and then he continued,
"See here, Dimock, we've been talking about
you, and if you say two hundred thousand dollars
will pull you through and put you on your legs
we'll let you have it."

Much could be done with a sum that was so
vast in those days and the temptation was ter-
rific, but I shook my head and explained that my
only hope was in carrying through a compromise
that would leave me free to work, and I showed
the paper that had been prepared which then had
but the signatures of those who had advised it. I

162 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

told of my experience with the Quaker firm upon
which the brothers looked at one another with a
'What do you think of that?" expression, and
the senior said, "Charlie, you go around and get
that paper signed," and Charlie replied, "Edward
can do it better," and then Edward grabbed his
hat and saying, "Come along" to me started for
the street.

I forget the exact language used in that Quak-
er's office, but I recall a scene of dramatic in-
tensity that I have not seen equalled on the
boards of any theater. The Quaker-banker was
standing by his desk and near him were several
men with wThom he was conversing, who were
probably from out of town banks, since it was
with such that his chief business was done.
When my friend held out my paper and asked
why he objected to signing it the Quaker-banker
repeated the speech he had made to me until he
was interrupted by a series of questions, which
grew louder and louder in tone, while men
stopped talking and pens ceased to move :

"Matter of principle is it?" said my friend.

IN THE SADDLE AGAIN 163

"Is it a matter of principle to rob your own cus-
tomers? Is it a matter of principle to report
sales of bonds for your correspondents at the low-
est quotations of the day, and to report all pur-
chases at the highest?" The accused was much
agitated and stood motioning for his denouncer
to stop. In another minute, with a hand that
shook so he could scarcely write, he signed the
paper for his firm. After leaving the office with
my friend, I tried to thank him, but he had his
cynical manner in hand and said:

"I didn't do it for you, but he's the blankest
hypocrite in the street and I was glad of the
chance to tell him so. Now come back to the
office and we'll look over the rest of your list."

The three brothers pored over the paper after
which the senior partner said gravely,

"I think you will have no trouble with the big
fellows. If you do we'll help you with them all
we can. I don't know anything about the
smaller ones."

His diagnosis was right and the larger credi-
tors were most considerate. The smaller ones

164 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

were mostly Stock Exchange men and the in-
debtedness arose from short sales made to me a
day or so before the crash in the stock and one
on the very morning of the break, bought on a
continuing order of mine which I had failed to
cancel. As these debts represented no loss, I
supposed they would be easy to settle. There
were three, however, who were obdurate and in-
sisted on the pound of flesh and the settlement
was held up by them. They were anxious for
me to get to work but seemed to believe that the
interests were so large that by holding them up
a special settlement for themselves could be
forced.

The brokers themselves expressed sympathy
and a desire to settle on the terms proposed, but
said their customers were obdurate and de-
manded short notes for the full amount. Their
refusal to tell me the names of their principals
confirmed suspicions I already held and before
many days I was able to offer proof that two of
the claims were by the member of the pool who
had previously betrayed me. In presenting this

IN THE SADDLE AGAIN 165

proof I withdrew all offer of settlement and de-
manded an unconditional release, which was
promptly forthcoming. I could learn nothing
regarding the third claim and finally, with the
consent of the larger creditors, I gave a short note
for the amount of the claim, some ten thousand
dollars. In doing this I demanded of the broker
the name of his customer as a condition of com-
plying with his conditions. After consulting
with his principal he agreed to tell me the name,
after the note had been paid. When the note
was due I personally handed the broker a certi-
fied check for the amount and, having received
the note, said:

"Now, Mr. Hay, tell me the name of this mys-
terious man, for I can't guess it."

Hay looked at me curiously for a moment and
then saying: "I am going to give you a great
surprise, Mr. Dimock," wrote a name upon a
sheet of paper which he pushed toward me. It
was the name of the cashier whom I had once
helped and who had subsequently betrayed both
his own bank and me.

166 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

The settlement left me with big problems to
face; notes for large sums soon to fall due, and
the days of grace ticking away as I tried to
think ; longer notes partly secured by discredited
stock for which there was no present or prospec-
tive market; and bills and interest accruing on a
"Castle" which had cost more than a quarter of
a million dollars but was already encumbered
and in quite unmarketable condition. In the
days of my prosperity I had deeded real estate
to my wife with sufficient securities to keep the
wolf from the door in the event of misfortune to
myself. Small use is provision of that kind,
when a wife looks upon troubled lines in her hus-
band's face and insists on her partnership rights.
So the salable securities had been sacrificed in
the vain effort to preserve the credit of the firm
and pull it through.

There remained the real estate, a large tract
in Elizabeth, of some potential value if improved.
I could have these dead acres to work with, these
and my debts. Few knew how great an asset a
big indebtedness can prove. It has pulled

IN THE SADDLE AGAIN 167

Goulds through and saved many a Huntington
from bankruptcy. I had one large debt which
was not a debt. It was a loan to the pool mana-
ger of money which I never received . but which
was put in my name by the president of the sav-
ings bank which made the loan, who was himself
a member of the pool. After the failure I stood
for the liability conditioned upon the bank's ac-
cepting the equity in the Castle and a mortgage
on the Elizabeth property in payment of this,
and I believe other loans which were secured by
the same stock. This left the savings bank with
real estate and mortgages which were in their
line, and offered a fair prospect of making good
their losses, instead of shares of stock which in
their hands were hopeless. I made other similar
deals, with the result that I had a few thousand
shares of Atlantic Mail free and the rest of the
stock tied up, but with obligations in the form of
loans and mortgages that were frightful to con-
template.

At the first election of directors of the steam-
ship company I made a clean sweep of the old

168 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

pool gang against bitter remonstrance which I
understood when I discovered that the president
had loaned all the cash, some fifty or sixty thou-
sand dollars to himself, and as much cash was
needed to run the company I had another Old
Man of the Sea on my shoulders. There was
need of haste and I soon had steam on with the
safety valves tied down. Once more Atlantic
Mail was quoted regularly on the Exchange, but
at a price too low to challenge criticism. I never
offered it as security on call loans, but when I
needed money went to those to whom I was in-
debted and the offer to anticipate the payment
of a note seldom failed to give me the new loan
I wanted. It is a commonplace of the science of
borrowing money, that the man who has lost on a
stock, a mine, or a deal of any sort is the one to
approach for a loan on similar security. Any
capitalist will adventure more to recover the cash
he has lost than to make twice the amount in a
safer deal. I renewed my trading in gold which
had become a less fruitful field and for which
I was insufficiently equipped with cash.

IN THE SADDLE AGAIN 169

My chief thought by day and my dreams at
night were how to make fruitful those mortgaged
acres in Elizabeth. I moved our house to one
side and sent the main street of the town far past
it to the south. I gridironed a hundred acres
with streets and sidewalks by the mile. They
were curbed and sewered and in many cases
wooden pavements laid by the city, while water
and gas pipes were extended beneath the flagged
sidewalks. The city advanced much for the im-
provement of the streets but for every dollar ex-
pended by it I spent many. I built houses by
the score, as was never before done in a town like
that, houses that cost to construct from five thou-
sand dollars to a hundred and fifty thousand
each. I supported a club stable, gymnasium,
and stage line for residents. Not often has an
enterprise been so advertised. From firework
celebrations on land to ocean steamship excur-
sions there was always something doing. I
worked hard to persuade the Singer Sewing Ma-
chine people to establish their factory on the Kill
von Kull, near property that I controlled, but

170 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

when at last they came they located too far from
my property to be of service to me, telling me
that they must be nearer the railroad.

It occurred to me that it might popularize
the property if the State Capitol could be
located upon it. I memorialized the Legislature
through the Senate, setting forth the fact that
Elizabeth had once been the capital of the State,
that the removal to Trenton had been made for
reasons that were now arguments for its return,
etc., etc., closing with the offer to the State of
land suitable for the erection of a Capitol and a
cash subscription of seventy-five thousand dol-
lars toward its construction.

The Senate took up the matter with apparent
seriousness and appointed a committee to exam-
ine the property offered and report to the Sen-
ate. A day was appointed for the examination
of the property and for a dinner at my house.
I invited to the dinner members of the Senate
and House, representatives of the Elizabeth City
Government, journalists from New York and
New Jersey. I had the run of the Tribune of-

IN THE SADDLE AGAIN 171

flee and I told Mr. Greeley I wanted him, but he
shook his head, saying:

"Make it New Brunswick and I'll help you,
and I'll go to your dinner, but Elizabeth's too
Democratic."

The press of New Jersey took the proposition
seriously and some of the papers stood on their
heads with excitement. The dinner must have
been a success for before it was half over half the
guests had joined in a pledge: "We won't go
home till morning," and they didn't — many of
them. A New York editor objected to moving
the Legislature of New Jersey so near the me-
tropolis on grounds of morality.

"Are not the morals of New York all right?''
sarcastically inquired a local journalist.

"They are now!" was the caustic reply.

I think the report to the Senate was in favor
of the removal, but it never went farther, for
I took no other steps in the matter, having
counted the whole thing a joke until those op-
posed made me think I was in earnest.

I was in the saddle again, but not out of the

172 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

woods. High prices were quoted for lots and
houses on my property. The figure on the best
block was a hundred dollars a front foot, and on
other blocks nearly as much. Houses were sold
on that basis, but the supply was far in excess
of the demand. How I worked to make the
property popular ! I couldn't cut prices directly
to bring people in, but an interesting, enterpris-
ing man with an attractive family likely to be
good for bait, could have traded me lots in Sa-
hara for at least the equity in my most desirable
holding. Indeed, I made many trades and be-
came possessed of much outside property, from
farms to a cotton mill and from a lumber plant
to an encumbered store in Broadway. Yet de-
spite all sacrifices, I was doing well, and as
houses were finished it was easy to mortgage
them for two-thirds of their cost while waiting
for a customer.

Then the Wall Street office contributed many
and many a timely check. The success of the
enterprise was the talk of the country round and
there was rivalry on every hand. Usually it was

IN THE SADDLE AGAIN 173

supposed that wooden pavements and flagged
sidewalks had turned the trick and the city gov-
ernment was besieged until streets radiated into
the surrounding wilderness like threads of a spi-
der's web from its center. These streets were
graded, flagged, curbed, sewered, and paved, and
possessed every attribute of prosperity, except-
ing that they were bare of buildings.

In the course of time pavements rotted, the
wilderness reclaimed the unimproved streets, and
the pall of bankruptcy settled upon the city be-
cause of unwise extension of its credit. Far and
wide was the failure proclaimed, with always full
discredit to me, no distinction being made be-
tween asking for public facilities where a million
dollars was being privately expended and in-
veigling the city into speculation in which no
investment but its own was made.

I grew as callous to criticism as I had become
inured to flattery and when press comments were
shown me often replied that I cared nothing for
them, that it was my obituary I wanted to read.
The thought became almost an obsession and at

174 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

last my curious wish was gratified to the accom-
paniment of strange coincidences. I owned a
line of steamers that ran up Long Island Sound
to the eastern end of the island and it was my
custom to take friends to Montauk for a day or
two of blue fishing, life on the beach, and at the
lighthouse. On one occasion I had arranged to
take a goodly party of friends to Montauk, by
my boat which was to leave on a certain Wednes-
day. On the Monday preceding, one of the pro-
posed party, a very dear friend of my own, died
suddenly and on Wednesday, instead of going
with him on an excursion, we followed his re-
mains to the cemetery. The excursion was post-
poned to the following Wednesday, but again,
on the Monday preceding, another of the party
died with similar suddenness and once more our
Wednesday's pilgrimage was to the cemetery.
This time the call was even nearer, for the ladv
who died was our nearest neighbor and with her
husband our closest associates, companions on
many trips.

Superstitious fears were rife when the excur-

IN THE SADDLE AGAIN 175

sion was postponed to the third Wednesday, su-
perstitions that seemed justified when the news
went broadcast on that third fatal Monday of my
sudden demise on the train while returning to my
home in Elizabeth. It was another of the party
who had died, my cousin, my partner in business,
whose name differed from mine by the middle
initial only. My own obituary filled pages of
my scrap book, but it was a sad realization of
my superstitious dreams.

CHAPTER X

BUBBLES

"He must needs go whom the devil drives,"
and the devil was driving me. I had assumed
a burden beyond all reason, which no normal suc-
cess of the Wall Street of that day could carry.
I had a moribund steamship company on my
hands which had to be kept going by the use of
tonics and stimulants, and an overloaded enter-
prise of much promise, yet dependent upon the
uncertain popular whim, and which called for
cash with a persistency that made the cries of the
daughters of the horseleech, "Give! Give!" seem
lifeless and intermittent. Yet demands were
met and maturing notes paid, while again the
gold business came to the front, but never again
as of old, for there were new and dangerous ele-
ments in the field, that were in Wall Street but
not of it. For Fisk and Gould were wreckers

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BUBBLES 177

of railroads and corrupters of courts, but in Wall
Street they were welchers. Henry N. Smith,
Gould's senior partner, told me that Jay Gould
was the poorest judge of the market that ever
came into Wall Street and Gould's henchman
and intimate, Charlie Osborne, said the hardest
thing he had ever done was to brace Jay up
when he was in a funk.

Gold business improved and my balance was
growing when the Fisk and Gould gang entered
the gold market. Fortunately I had not the
capital to enter the lists with them and besides
I was afraid. Their methods lacked sense and
represented brute force only and the corner they
were running was foredoomed to destruction, but
their immediate power was uncanny. For they
not only had money, but they controlled a bank
which would have certified their checks in pay-
ment for all the gold on earth and they so con-
trolled the courts that they could have filled their
pockets with blank injunctions and manda-
muses or even the profane form of the latter sug-
gested by Fisk himself.

178 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

The price of gold had been run up to a point
where it was impossible to hold it and ruin was
in sight. Fisk's best suggestion to force mercan-
tile and other shorts to cover was to advertise
names and amounts in the morning journals with
the warning that the price would be at once put
to two hundred unless all the shorts covered.
There was sense enough in the gang to suppress
that manifesto of folly, for Gould had a scheme
of sheer diabolism brooding in his more subtle
mind.

Black Friday is burned into my memory as is
the fourteenth of April, 1861, when the news
came of the fall of Sumter. As I entered the
Gold Room on that 24th of September, 1869,
my hands trembled and my heart seemed to
turn to water. Yet I had no commitments
which could harm me, for in fear of the unknown
I had closed everv short contract and could carry
the gold I held through any possible break, while
a big advance would mightily help my balance.
There were pallid faces around me and hands
that trembled like mine, for the mental atmos-

BUBBLES 179

phere was filled with apprehension and no one
could escape its influence.

While waiting for the opening signal I stood
by the rail — talking with Ned Harriman, as I
remember — and the blow of the chairman's mal-
let seemed to crash into my brain. Pandemo-
nium followed, but with it came back the fulness
of self-control and I was cooler in what followed
than I now am in the memory of it. I forget the
order of the early prices, and even the electric
indicator broke down in the effort to record the
changes. I remember a sale of $100,000 of gold
at 162 on my right and the same amount at 1,58
on my left at almost the same instant and I re-
call my chagrin at my failure to bag the differ-
ence of $4,000. That the corner was broken was
clear to me and that a crash was coming seemed
certain, so I sold and I sold and I sold.

There came first the rumor, and then the fact,
of the sale of four millions of gold by the Gov-
ernment and the price fell twenty-five per cent
from the highest point touched. It was the good
old times come again, with a quarter of a million

180 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

profit on each million sold and I had sold more
than that. But, alas, I had prudently covered
part of my short sales when the price broke ten
or fifteen per cent. Though I had made many
a fine turn as the market reeled back and forth
that day and my books at its close showed cash
assets that would put financial trouble behind me
for all time, yet a deadly fear held me in its grip.
For my chief sales had been to the Gould broker,
Speyers, and the Gould purpose to repudiate
these purchases was now apparent. The intent
to repudiate all purchases and enforce all sales,
was confirmed by the course of the swindlers on
the following day. The robbery had been delib-
erate and the Fisk- Gould brokers who had been
deputed to sell received instructions to make no
sales to Speyers but to sell to others without re-
gard to what Speyers was bidding.

It is hard to get honest tools to do dishonest
work and it is doubtful if one of the men enlisted
by Gould to rob the public made an honest re-
turn. There are fortunes in fashionable circles
to-day which date back to the robbery of the rob-

BUBBLES 181

bers on Black Friday. I paid for the high-
priced gold I had bought, though I felt sure that
most of it came from the thieves while of that
which I sold to them I was unable to deliver a
dollar. It left me nearly stranded, with recent
accumulations gone and only a big claim on
Gould via Speyers to show for them.

Of what follows I am almost ashamed to tell,
for it classes me with the most credulous of
"Come-Ons." I discussed the robbery with the
man who had robbed me, the manager of the pool
which had ruined me, with whom I had retained
a speaking acquaintance and who had himself
been victimized by the Erie gang. There were
sure to be multitudinous suits which the Gould-
Fisk control of the Tammany courts was likely
to make nugatory. Yet the first to strike would
have the best chance and it was quickly arranged
to begin a suit by attachment against the Pike's
Opera House, which, although owned by the
Erie, was in the individual name of one or both
of the conspirators. It was thought best to
bring the suit in one of our names and I trans-

182 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

f erred my claim for that purpose to my associate
in the suit. Our lien was the first on the opera
house and proved exceedingly embarrassing to
the gang so much so that we were offered fifty
per cent of our claim in settlement, but on the ur-
gent plea of the man in whose name the suit had
been brought that in another day we would get
our claim in full I assented to a refusal of the
offer I was burning to accept. "Another day"
never came to me, excepting in the form of an
announcement that it had been discovered that
nothing could be done with the suit and it had
been settled without however any cost to me.
I felt that I was quite helpless and was little
surprised when there followed the announcement

of the new Gould firm of , & Co.,

the senior partner of which had again robbed
me. For a time this firm handled Gould mil-
lions in spectacular fashion and I have often
wondered since which of these choice spirits won
out in that partnership deal. I fancy that just
for once the Erie man met his match. The
method by which my claim was settled was sug-

BUBBLES 183

gestive to the Black Friday gang, for when later
their creditors needed more legal proof to
strengthen their claims, it was offered by a young
man who had been in the Fisk & Belden employ
who secured an assignment of most of these
claims on his pledge to enforce their collection
for a large contingent fee, and thereupon re-
ceived a Gould partnership in payment for his
treachery.

Distressing years rolled by, filled with anxious
days and with too many sleepless nights. I was
like a juggler who keeps half a dozen balls in the
air, but the juggler had his hours off for rest
while I had none. I was growing wealthy on
paper, but how hollow it all was. To stop im-
provements would insure an all around crash, to
let Wall Street business go would cut out
connections that could often be made to turn
dead values into cash. Too many obligations
were secured by Atlantic Mail stock which would
have to be faced if I let the stock decline or the
company's treasury run dry.

When you see a man worried by business do

184* WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

you wonder that he doesn't retire? I don't, for
often the way out of his worries is through ex-
pansion for it is while that is going on that oppor-
tunity knocks at his door. When corralling the
Atlantic Mail stock I bought some thousands of
shares of an English estate which had a lot of
uncurrent securities that it wished to dispose
of by exchange for something that would look
better among its assets and offer some possibility
of making good its losses. There was a big
block of shares of the United States and Brazil
Mail and important interests in a number of
promising but yet struggling railroads.

Two million dollars in par value of some se-
curity was what the estate wanted and I offered
it that amount in the special tax bonds of the
State of North Carolina, while I was to have a
liberal time in which to secure the bonds. The
offer was accepted and I got busy. Commo-
dore Garrison controlled the Brazil Mail and the
transaction gave me a heavy interest with him.
Our private offices in Bowling Green were side

BUBBLES 185

by side, a long-bolted door was thrown open and
the intimacy that was established seemed to
pleasure him and wTas often of service to me.
For more than once he said:

"If you want money draw on me at four
months for fifty thousand, I'll accept it and the
Bank of New York will discount it for you."

He was the one other innocent signer of the
Atlantic Mail Pool paper, although not a victim
for he refused to pay the calls and defied the
pool manager to collect. He was a good friend
but a bitter enemy. Twice he was at sword's
points with Vanderbilt. One was a steamship
war which continued for eleven months at a cost
to Garrison of a hundred thousand dollars a
month, all of which was made up in a few months
after the war had been settled. The other was a
personal difficulty in which Vanderbilt was given
the alternative of receding or being shot down in
his tracks. Often I pushed open the door that
separated me from the Commodore to ask him
about his steamboat experiences on the Missis-

186 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

sippi, his shooting of Colonel Vick, or the hap-
penings in the wild days of his prominence in
San Francisco.

The history of two boats of the Brazil Mail
fleet, the Erie and the Ontario, illustrates the
precarious character of steamship investment at
that time. These boats had been built for a Bos-
ton company at a cost of eighteen hundred thou-
sand dollars for transatlantic service. The com-
pany was broken up and the Erie and On-
tario, which had never made a trip, were offered
for sale. A committee of the owners called on
Garrison and he bid them a million dollars for
the boats, which they declined. After vainly
seeking to effect a sale elsewhere, the committee
again came on from Boston and told Garrison
that they had decided to accept his offer of a mil-
lion. "That offer isn't open," was his reply.
"Plow much will you give?" "Six hundred
thousand dollars." This bid was rejected with
scorn. Not long afterward the committee re-
turned to New York, and a similar conversation
ensued, ending with Garrison's bid for the two

BUBBLES 187

boats being two hundred and seventy-five thou-
sand dollars, to which he added the statement
that if the committee did not accept the bid be-
fore leaving the room it would be withdrawn and
no other bid ever be made by him. After a
short consultation the offer was accepted.

North Carolina bonds were tobogganing
downward. The carpet-baggers were in control
at Raleigh, they had herded the negro legislators
and opened bargain counters for the sale of
bonds to the railroads. I went to Raleigh to get
an idea of the situation and talked to General

, the king of the lobbyists. He told me

he had bought a number of legislatures but
had found none so dirt cheap as in North Caro-
lina. While talking with him I saw another
carpet-bagger whom I recognized as a lawyer
who had collected for me eight thousand dol-
lars on a note and stolen the proceeds. I de-
cided that I need be in no haste to buy North
Carolina bonds since the supply would be likely
to hold out.

When I sought to buy the bonds in the New

188 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

York market I ran into the off-scouring of the
financial world. There were plenty for sale and
at prices low enough to suit me, but when I made
purchases and insisted upon receiving the bonds
from responsible parties the sale was declared off.
I bought one lot of a hundred thousand at fif-
teen from a member of a wealthy and well-known
New York family, only to find that he wTas the
black sheep of the family. He wanted me to
take up the bonds from a bank of which he was
borrowing ten thousand dollars on them and to
then pay him the five thousand dollars difference.
When I asked the bank if the bonds were his, or
if he had full authority to sell them, I was told
that he had no right to sell them, that he had as-
sured them he was loaning the money on the
bonds through me. I decided that there were
too many jobbers, wholesalers, and retailers be-
tween the manufacturer and the consumer of
these bonds and concluded to go at once to head-
quarters and as the manager of the estate had
expressed a preference for bonds issued by the
Wilmington, Charlotte and Rutherford road I

BUBBLES 189

started for Charlotte, the home of President
Sloane of that road. A lively experience fol-
lowed.

I reached Charlotte one Saturday morning
during a storm that might well be described as a
deluge. Mr. Sloane had just gone to the end of
a little branch road on which there would be no
train until Monday. I chartered a pickaninny
and a horse and cart to take me to the doctor and
I bought an umbrella which in an hour I threw
away, for I couldn't be any wetter without it.
The creeks and gullies which fed the Catawba
River were overflowing and we were nearly
wrecked in one of them. Then we came to an-
other that was a torrent which it was hopeless to
think of crossing with the cart. The darky didn't
want to go any farther and I didn't need him. I
borrowed the horse, unharnessed him down to
the bridle, and started to swim him across the
stream. We were swept down with a speed that
amazed me and I think I pulled his nose under
water with the bridle; at least I know we swam
separately to the bank. I kept on according to

190 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

directions I had received, sometimes sitting on
the rail that served the animal for a backbone and
at other times walking, wading, or wallowing
beside him.

I found Dr. Sloane and was hospitably wel-
comed by him until I told him my errand, after
which it looked for a time as if I should best con-
sult my comfort by walking out into the storm.
I don't know what he suspected me of, or, rather,
I don't know what he didn't suspect me of. His
attitude was that of a moonshiner whom a casual
caller had requested to show him his still. But
at heart he was hospitable and slowly unbent. I
told of the hospitality of a countryman of his, a
smoking car acquaintance of an hour, who had
taken me from the train, almost by force, to his
home in Henderson and had given me ten days of
an unending round of excitement and pleasure,
of quail and wild turkey shooting, of fox hunting
and rabbit chasing from the time I was awakened
in the morning down to my host's final appear-
ance at night at my bedside with a big tumbler of
egg-nog for a nightcap.

BUBBLES 191

The doctor shook with laughter as I told of
one day when my Henderson friend had driven
me with his family some miles to a wonderful
quail country and of our return at dusk when he
let out his horses to show me their speed and the
king bolt broke, the team kept on with the for-
ward axle and wheels, while the front end of the
wagon box struck the ground, sending my com-
panion and myself far forward on the road, piling
the rest of the family on our backs, and burying
us beneath guns, cartridges, game bags, lunch
baskets, and a wagon load of quail. After this
President Sloane came out of his shell and kept
me entertained until the small hours with his ex-
periences, amusing and far otherwise, as a coun-
try doctor.

On the morning of Monday, March 28, 1870,
we found that things had happened, for the
Catawba was a raging torrent which had over-
flowed the banks, flooded large tracts, undermined
buildings, and swept away the railroad and other
bridges.

"It will be dangerous crossing that river," said

192 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

the doctor, "and you had better stay here, but I
have got to get back to-day."

I was sorry he was going and I hated to take
the risk, but I hadn't the courage to tell how
scared I was. When we reached the river it was
a wild and to me a fearful sight and a man with
a boat whom the doctor found was reluctant to
go, declaring that for no other man in the country
would he attempt it. The craft was an old, leaky
dug-out, and President Sloane paddled in the
stern while the owner of the boat took the bow
and I sat in a puddle of water amidship and
bailed with a washbasin. The crossing was bad
enough, but landing among the trees was terrify-
ing. We were swept down stream for half a
mile before finding a chance to land and then
dodging between some trees and fending off
others, were finally capsized, but in shallow water
near the shore. The doctor commandeered the
first horse and buggy he found and on that Mon-
day afternoon it might have been said of him his
"driving is like the driving of Jehu the son of
Nimshi." When I complimented him on his skill

"We cruised and camped, fished and photographed for years.
Julian and I." Palmetto Camp, on the shore of the Gulf.

Page 459

BUBBLES 193

as a river pilot he declared that the man in the
bow was a better boatman than he.

"Then why didn't you give him the controlling
paddle?" I asked.

"I expected trouble and was afraid of his los-
ing his nerve."

Before we reached Charlotte he returned to the
subject which I had not dared to reopen and gave
me valuable hints regarding the location of big
blocks of the bonds I needed.

Often chance brings about the pleasantest
friendships and fate was good to me on my home-
ward journey from Charlotte. Between Rich-
mond and Washington I had so pleasant a con-
versation with a man who sat beside me in the
car that I inquired his name.
Stone," was the reply.

'Are you by any chance Gen. Charles P.
Stone?" and his smile gave the answer I hoped
for. It was then less than five years after Appo-
mattox and less than nine since Gen. Winfield S.
Scott had put his favorite, General Stone, in mil-
itary command of Washington. I gave my new

<<l

C(

194 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

friend small chance to stop talking for I plied
him with questions at every opportunity. As we
neared Washington I asked,

"Where do you stop in Washington, Gen-
eral ?"

"Where do you stop, yourself? I thought of
Willard's."

"I think of Willard's, too," said I.

But we really didn't stop anywhere, for we
walked the streets during what was left of the
night while he pointed out the military purpose
in the original laying out of the streets and then
filled the hours with incidents of the early days of
the war which were recalled by nearly every
square in the city. We took an early train for
my home in Elizabeth where he made the first of
many visits to me, always to the delight of my
family and myself. Whenever he came to New
York his first and last calls were at my office.
One such call stands out in my memory. We
had just said good-bye and I asked the usual
question,

"When will I see you again?"

BUBBLES 195

"Next time I am in New York. My first call

will be here as usual."

"When is that likely to be, General?"

"Ten years, or perhaps twenty. I am going

to Egypt to reorganize the army of the Khed-

5>

ive.

He was the best raconteur I ever met, but I will
make no attempt to illustrate this and will only
crudely outline two or three incidents of the hun-
dreds that impressed through his telling.

Washington was in danger at the outbreak of
the war and troops from the North for its de-
fense had to pass through disaffected Maryland.
Railroad tracks were torn up to prevent the pas-
sage of soldiers and one of Stone's most im-
portant duties was to send out workmen, with
guards to protect them, to restore the tracks.
An engineer arriving from the North with an
engine and freight cars was ordered to return
with rails and workmen. The engineer refused
to get into his cab and a soldier was ordered to
shoot him if he hesitated. Then Stone ordered
two soldiers to get on the tender and instructed

196 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

them to shoot the engineer if any accident hap-
pened to the train.

"But," exclaimed the distressed rebel, "it won't
be my fault if there is an accident."

"It may not be your fault, but it will be your
misfortune," was the reply.

Stone was with Scott through the Mexican
War and one of the stories he told of him sug-
gested quicker thought than was usually ascribed
to that general.

It was just after the storming of the heights of
Chapultepec that Stone was with the Fourth
Artillery, the members of which were wildly
cheering as they gathered about two captured
guns. Scott rode toward them, a magnificent
figure upon his great white horse. His mind was
occupied with plans for the great work of the
following day, but he grasped the situation before
him. There were the captured guns and a glance
at their carriages told him they had once be-
longed to his army. But two such guns had been
lost and they were of the Fourth Artillery whose
members were now gathered about them. It was

BUBBLES 197

in Scott's mind, too, that the men in charge of the
guns when they were captured had died at their
posts. There was silence on the field as Scott
reined in his horse and removing his hat exclaimed
in slow, solemn tones,

"Honor to the Fourth Artillery! These guns
shall be the property of this regiment forever,
and on them shall be inscribed, 'Lost without dis-
honor, retaken with glory !' "

General Scott lived for a time in Elizabeth, and
Santa Anna had a friend in the same place, one
Baez, whom he used to visit. I have seen the two
men in the streets of that city, but not in the same
year. I wish they could have met and I have
been there to see! What a wonderful contrast
the meeting would have shown, between the
splendid figure of the great general and the
weazened form of the Mexican shrimp.

That crossing of the Catawba reminds me of a
night off the Atlantic coast. In January, 1871,
I was sending a small steam yacht, the Anna, to
Nassau, to serve as a tender when our big boats
could not enter the harbor. Happening to be at

198 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

our dock at Pier 4, to see the craft off, the im-
pulse possessed me to take a short run down the
coast. I sent word to the office and the house
that I would probably be home the next night,
and half an hour after the idea struck me the
yacht was pointing for the Narrows. I had
thought to put in to Delaware Bay in the morn-
ing, but a strong wind from the north was helping
us on and I decided to stick to the yacht for a few
hours more. The wind increased through the
day and the barometer threatened, while the cap-
tain looked anxious and said he must make for
Chesapeake Bay and wait at Norfolk for better
weather before venturing off Hatteras in a craft
that couldn't more than float her own engine and
boilers.

When the sun went down a gale was blowing
and the sea stood our tub of a boat on head and
tail alternately, while the rolling was enough to
make one dizzy. I crawled into my berth in the
little cabin, bracing myself to keep from being
thrown out, and managed to get a little sleep. It
was the fixed gaze of the Captain that wakened

BUBBLES 199

me as he lay resting on his elbows on the floor
with the chart before him and his face turned up
to mine.

''Where are we, Captain?" I asked, and he
said, "Come here and I'll show you."

I sprawled out on the floor beside him, while
with ruler and dividers he plotted out our course,
finally driving a leg of the latter through the
chart into the floor and exclaiming, "We are
there if the compass is right and I know it isn't."

Though it looked as if we might be drowned
we arrived safely at Norfolk three days after
leaving New York.

It's a feast or a famine in the steamship busi-
ness. I have known one of our boats to clear
twenty-five thousand dollars on a trip and then
eat her head off for months at a time. Long be-
fore the pool had floored me I had grub-staked a
friend to a line to the Magdalena River. He
bought the Estrella, which had cost $125,000, at a
sacrifice price and started in. I knew Garrison
slightly at that time and as he had seemed to like
me I consulted him, when it was too late. His

200 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

advice was of a kind that one never forgets. He
told me that if I would draw my own check for
ten thousand dollars and give it to any man who
would take the boat off my hands as a gift I
would save money.

The boat paid Irish dividends from the start
and its repair bills footed up like a construction
account. Its last kick was in West Indian
waters where it fell into the hands of the libelling
and libelous pirates of Kingston. When the first
bill came in, possibly for a jug of aguardiente, I
would have given up the boat for the amount of
the bill. I did give up the boat, but I received
nothing for it.

Sometimes a steamship line can navigate the
water of Wall Street to better advantage than
the ocean for which it was built. Stockwell, who
controlled the Pacific Mail Steamship Company,
was a power in the Wall Street market and the
stocks he fathered or favored were in the blue
chip class. I knew that a tip from him would
send any stock whirling upward and I suggested
that he boom Atlantic Mail. He was pleased

BUBBLES 201

with the idea and it was arranged that I protect
him from loss, or a corner, by giving a call on sub-
stantially all the capital stock, and that I deposit
the stock in the United States Trust Company to
the joint order of his broker, James D. Smith,
and myself. The profits were to be divided into
three parts, one to go to Smith for giving out the
orders and manipulating the Stock Exchange
part of the deal, one to me for supplying the
material, and one to Stockwell for making the
market. I took the stock from those who held it
as security for loans to me, giving receipts in its
place and my promise to return it within a
month. The shares were deposited with the
Trust Company as arranged, subject to the joint
order of Smith and myself, and Stockwell was
told that it was his move.

He gave the tip to a few of his friends, in the
most sacred confidence, that he was going in for
a big operation in Atlantic Mail, with the marvel-
ous result that the stock swept upward so wildly
that Smith sold more than the capital stock in a
few hours. I was jubilant over the amazing de-

202 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

mand for the shares that Stockwell had created,
Smith was worried because of his excess sales and
anxious lest some accident to me over night
should tie up the stock in the Trust Company,
leaving his firm and himself in the clutches of a
close corner.

Stockwell was surprised at the extent of his
success in making a market for the stock and
chagrined that his share in the profits was not
larger. He had not been in Wall Street long
enough to become saturated with the virtue which
that street instills of living up to the letter and
spirit of every contract, whether written or oral.
He came to me early in the morning when the
shares were to be delivered and said that his share
ought to be larger and that if something was not
done he would withdraw from the contract and
let each one take care of himself. He added
that he would be satisfied if I would take his yacht
Julia off his hands at the price he paid for it,
thirty-five thousand dollars. The yacht, he said,
had once belonged to Tweed, to whom its cost had
been over a hundred thousand dollars and that

BUBBLES 203

the price at which he offered it to me could easily
be obtained but that he hadn't the time to attend
to it. He said that the deal could go on if I
would promise to take the Julia when it was over
and that he would take the risk of getting out of
Jim Smith what he ought to contribute.

It was mostly bluff and all graft, but the situa-
tion was dangerous for in starting the operation
Smith had bought thousands of shares through
Stockwell's brokers on Stockwell's orders, and if
Stockwell had insisted on taking those purchases
for himself, denying that they were on account of
the pool, he might have had the pool cornered to
the serious injury of Smith and myself. I made
the concession, the shares were delivered and the
operation continued. Smith stood pat on our
short sales, waiting for the decline which was as
certain to come as the sun to sink to the horizon,
but the vis viva of the Stockwell boom held it
strong for days. We knew the rise was ephem-
eral, we had watched for years from behind the
scenes the machinery that made the quotations
and often we had controlled and directed that

204 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

machinery. But as Punch and Judy shows seem
ever real even to the child who has watched the
manipulator, so we larger children never become
immune to the story of the tape even when it has
been written by ourselves. Smith declared and I
agreed with him that the market was too strong
to risk remaining short of stock that had to be
borrowed in the market. No sooner had he cov-
ered these excess sales at a heavy loss than the
break came and the whole operation was closed at
a profit of some three hundred thousand dollars.

Smith was indignant at the Stockwell hold-up,
but said he was glad I hadn't told him, since the
President of the Pacific Mail was quite tricky
enough to put his best friend in a hole. He sent
for Stockwell and denounced him roundly, get-
ting only the merry "Ha, ha!" in reply. I never
set foot on my $35,000 purchase, but later trans-
ferred it to Smith, who thought he might work
something like the purchase price out of it for
me, but two thousand dollars is all that ever came
back to me for it.

A hundred thousand dollars doesn't go far in^

BUBBLES 205

keeping up a decaying line of steamers or devel-
oping rural property on a big scale, and as more
and more my time was taken up by these enter-
prises I had to neglect the Wall Street work
through which the chief cash chances came.

CHAPTER XI

STEAMSHIPS AND SUBSIDIES

Something must be done to boom trade with
the tropics. We carried most of the sugar and
tobacco, the oranges and lemons that came to the
country, but the passenger traffic needed develop-
ing. I filled the Morro Castle, our best steamer,
on one trip with personal friends of my own.
There were newspaper editors and magazine
men, poets and politicians, artists and bank of-
ficials, senators and clergymen. We left our
dock on the 25th of January, 1872. After two
or three days of storm the weather became good
to us and it was one happy family that overflowed
the quarterdeck. There was music and dancing,
song and recitation, with an occasional bit of
flirtation, for there were some amazingly pretty
girls on board, and excepting myself most of the
men were in susceptible mood.

206

STEAMSHIPS AND SUBSIDIES 207

Letters were read from many who were unable
to be with ns ; of notable interest, as I remember
them, were those of John Hay and Whitelaw
Reid. Tom Nast put the blame of his dereliction
on Harper Bros, in a telegram which I received
at the dock as we were about to leave. He added
that I had better take it out of S. S. Conant, who,
with his wife, was to be with us. Conant avoided
criticism by pleading that he was the bearer of
excuses from Bayard Taylor, including a poem
dedicated to his would-be shipmates, a companion
piece to his Bedouin love song. Frank Church
declared that Taylor was a friend of his and de-
nounced the poem as worthless and a fraud, prob-
ably written by Conant himself, and he appealed
to William Cullen Bryant to support that view.
Bryant decided that it was clearly a forgery, it
being much better than the Bedouin song, though
he doubted if Conant could have written it.

The night of the 29th made a dent in my mem-
ory which will stay there while life lasts. The sea
was calm and I think the moon was full. No
ship was in sight and the only sound was the

208 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

muffled churning of the big paddle wheels. I
was sitting on the deck with William D. O'Con-
nor, beside the chair of Mrs. Henry Ward
Beecher, whose husband up to almost the last day
had hoped to be with us. O'Connor was a bril-
liant magazine writer and author, of the sixties,
but at this time in Government employ where
earlier he had been one of a group of choice
spirits, the like of which have seldom been as-
sembled. There were Walt Whitman, John
Burroughs, W. D. O'Connor, Edmund Clarence
Stedman, Thomas Harland, and A. B. Johnson,
all of whom I am proud to say are or have been
my friends.

It was during war days in Washington that the
group held frequent meetings at the room of one
of their number and for a time it chanced that
Harland was in weekly receipt of proof sheets
of Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables," then in
process of publication. Each member of the
group took the sheets in turn, translating from
the French as he read, but losing his turn when
he faltered or made a mistake. It is said of Walt

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Whitman that he never lost his turn or hesitated
for a word, even turning the patois of the
Parisian gamin into Bowery boy slang.

As we sat on the deck a group gathered about
us, drawn by the rich tones and the flexible voice
of the versatile O'Connor, who kept us vibrating
between tears and laughter. Sometimes he
spoke in that spirit of beautiful reverence that
underlay his "Ghost" and his "Carpenter," fol-
lowing with gorgeous word painting that I have
never heard equaled, interspersed with intel-
lectual gems, product of the philosophic, agnostic
atmosphere of his Boston home. It was after a
brilliant flash of skepticism that a man who had
just joined the group, Dr. Samson, then presi-
dent of Columbian College of Washington,
quietly asked if he might reply and was warmly
welcomed by O'Connor. I never met the man
who was better qualified for the task before him.
With slow utterance and measured words, each
one fitting its allotted place within the breadth
of a hair, the doctor answered every argument,
pierced every sophistry, and humorously brushed

210 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

aside all mere flowers of oratory. In support of
his own position Dr. Samson quoted from recog-
nized authorities, sacred and profane, fortifying
his argument until I was sure that no intellectual
artillery could pierce the armor of his defense.
But when O'Connor's turn came he traversed the
doctor's every argument, quoting with his mar-
velous memory from the very authorities cited
by his opponent, passages admitting of a con-
struction antithetical in effect to that sought by
Samson.

As the intellectual duel proceeded, the subject
broadened until it gave play to all the elements of
oratory, to humor and pathos as well as argument
and rhetoric, to personal magnetism and an in-
tonation so effective as to amount to acting.
Around me, seated on the deck, as near the speak-
ers as they could get, were a score of my guests,
while in a circle of chairs about them were twice
that number of ladies, while behind them fifty
men were standing. The full moon flooded our
deck with light, it fell softly on the silent water
about us, and made brilliant our foaming wake

STEAMSHIPS AND SUBSIDIES 211

which stretched to the horizon, but no eye was
turned aside to admire, for all were fixed on the
speakers. It was hours before the group broke
up and I think there were few who did not feel
with me that that night on the Morro Castle was
worth a year of life. O'Connor and Samson
were friends from that night, though always
ready for a passage at arms.

It was only a day or two later at Nassau that
the latter amused me by his quick retort to his
antagonist. I was standing with them near a
cocoa palm which some negroes had climbed and
from which they were throwing nuts to the
ground. One of these struck a young negro, but
without injuring him. "Dr. Samson," said
O'Connor, "one of your profession offered in
proof of the wisdom and mercy of the Creator
that he put the pumpkin on the ground and the
acorn on the high tree where its fall would be
harmless to man. How about those cannon balls
that the Lord has hung on that tree ready to
crack the cocoanut of any one who walks under
it?"

212 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

"Proves the same thing," replied the ready
doctor, "for you will observe that in the countries
where He has planted those cannon ball trees, He
has given the inhabitants skulls capable of resist-
ing the impact of the falling fruit!"

At Havana I found a cable calling me home
and when the steamer returned I had to leave my
guests in charge of my wife and the officials of
the line.

In my brief stay in Havana a trifling incident
caused me such bewilderment that my recollec-
tions of that city are still confused. After en-
tering the harbor I had occasion to go below and
when I returned to the deck the steamer had been
turned around. The city of Havana and the
fortress Morro Castle had changed places and I
never got them straightened out. I hardly dared
leave the hotel without a string to guide me back.
If I tried to cross a street I was liable to land on
the side I started from.

It was hard to say good-bye to the jolly crowd
and embark on a lonesome trip. I remember
with reverence and affection one of those fare-

STEAMSHIPS AND SUBSIDIES 213

wells. Mrs. Beecher was just past sixty while I
was not quite thirty and when she held out her
hand as I was leaving she said, "You have been
good to me and as I am old enough to be your
mother I can thank you this way," and she kissed
me.

I left Havana in such haste that I neglected to
see that my trunk was aboard. My overcoat had
been stolen while there and I was poorly fitted
(in my summer garments and shoes) to make a
northern voyage, even over smooth seas, and the
trip was far from that. I had the Captain's
house on deck, a big apartment by itself. Dr.
Samson, Senator Stark, and two or three others
of my guests returned with me; the rest of the
passengers were strangers. From the first the
weather was stormy and after leaving Nassau we
ran into a gale. There had been several wrecks
in the Caribbean Sea and at Nassau we picked
up the captains of three wrecked craft. I spent
most of my time in the pilot house and the con-
versation of these captains was not cheering.
Their own craft had gone to Davy Jones's locker,

214 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

and they could see no other destination for the
Morro Castle.

Hour by hour the velocity of the wind in-
creased. A line was rigged from my room to the
pilot house and husky sailors helped me make the
trip. Once, as I neared the pilot house, the wind
tore my cap from my head and the next instant
it was flattened against the taffrail. The gale
tore the crests from the waves and stung my face
with particles as solid as sleet. In the middle of
my room was a double bed and hard work I had
to stay in it. Lashed to the bed was a box con-
taining a few dozen cocoanuts which I was taking
home. One night the box broke loose and was
capsized. When I tried to dress in the morning
it was as if my legs were nine-pins at which in-
visible bowlers were hurling balls. I finally cor-
ralled and secured the box and thereafter caught
the cocoanuts one at a time as they were flying
past me.

Captain Curtis became suddenly insistent for
me to go below. I refused, but he urged, "It's
pretty near a hurricane, it's beginning to tear us

STEAMSHIPS AND SUBSIDIES 215

to pieces, we're making no headway, and we are
at the end of our coal." We were looking like a
wreck, paddle boxes torn away, and the great
skeleton paddle wheels laboring as they revolved
with many of their paddle boards missing. The
captain continued, — "I may have to go about, or
try to, any minute and then your house will go
overboard the first thing and we'll be lucky if
that is all that happens."

"Isn't there plenty of woodwork about the ship
that can be taken without weakening her, furni-
ture, my house, and the coal bunkers?"

"It wouldn't last any time at all. We've got
several hundred tons of sugar aboard and that
burns when the store that holds it is on fire; I
never heard of its being tried under a boiler, but
it's all that is left to us."

"I hope it will work," I replied, "and the boxes
that hold it will help some, but I'm afraid you'll
have a foot of molasses in the fire room in an
hour."

The experiment, unique so far as I ever heard,
was an amazing success. Boxes of sugar were

216 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

loAvered into the fire room, smashed up with axes,
and sugar and boxes together shoveled into the
furnaces. From that hour 80,000 pounds of
sugar, mixed with pieces of boxes, fragments of
furniture, and such portions of the boat as could
be hewed away without danger to the craft were
pitched onto the grates. The gale lessened, the
continuous prayer meeting in the cabin became
intermittent, and when one night the Highland
lights were sighted the passengers were half crazy
with joy. Some laughed, some cried, and some
danced, all expressive of the same emotion. The
first act of the men was to subscribe a liberal sum
for the purchase of a gold watch for Captain
Curtis which was later duly engraved and cere-
moniously presented to him. At the steamship
office I learned that there was much anxietv
about us and that a steamer was being fitted out
to cruise for us.

The Crescent City with my guests was to have
left Havana for home on the tenth of February,
two or three days after we were due in New
York, and I knew there would be much appre-

STEAMSHIPS AND SUBSIDIES 217

hension among my friends lest the hurricane had
proved disastrous to us. I wanted to reassure
them as early as possible and determined to meet
them in the lower bay from a pilot boat. There
was one difficulty about this. On her outward
trip the Crescent City had carried away her pilot,
rough water having made it too difficult to put
him off. The boat was likely to arrive on the
night of the fourteenth and as she had a pilot
aboard would not be on the lookout for another.
That made it necessary for the boat I was on to
get in the path of every incoming steamer ready
to compel it to stop. We cruised well down in
the lower bay all through the afternoon and night
of the 14th of February. It was bitterly cold
with half a gale of wind and that pilot boat
bucked like a bronco and rolled like a porpoise as
her course was changed for every speck on the
horizon or light that gleamed through the dark-
ness.

For forty years the memory of the temperature
that night on the deck of the pilot boat has repre-
sented my conception of the cold of interstellar

218 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

space. Per contra, a red hot stove in the little
cabin provided another extreme which I hope to
avoid, hereafter. It was afternoon of the 15th
when the Crescent City was sighted and we had to
lie square across her bows to stop her. It was
too rough for the small boat which was half filled
and nearly swamped while putting me aboard the
steamer where I was almost too frozen to talk,
which is a strong way of stating the case. There
were no apprehensions to be allayed, for my good
agent in Havana had "lied like a gentleman,"
and exhibited to my family and friends a copy
of a bogus cablegram announcing our safe arrival
in New York, after a somewhat stormy passage.
A single annoying event disturbs an otherwise
unclouded memory of the most delightful excur-
sion of which I have ever heard. At the dock
when the custom house officers were examining
the baggage of the passengers, one of my nearest
friends, a man of scrupulous integrity — and I say
that to-day despite what I have to tell of him —
asked me to have his baggage passed by the Cus-
tom House official. At my request that officer

STEAMSHIPS AND SUBSIDIES 219

chalked the trunks and it was not until many
months thereafter that my friend told me that
the trunks which had been passed at my request
contained four thousand costly cigars. When I
upbraided him he replied that he paid all his debts
and his honest taxes and had never wronged any
man, but that he wouldn't let even the Govern-
ment rob him. He argued that he had bought
the cigars for his own use and had a right to
smoke them either abroad or at home. He knew
that I was an enemy of the tariff, but he failed to
consider what my position would have been if his
smuggling had been discovered.

As that excursion of friends on the Morro
Castle stands out in my memory glistening with
sunshine, so is the tragedy of the ill-fated Mis-
souri shrouded with gloom. It was soon after
our excursion that the Atlantic Mail steamship
Missouri was burned at sea and of more than a
hundred on board only half a dozen or so were
saved.

It was fourteen years later in the Rocky
Mountains that the probable cause of that hor-

220 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

rible calamity was disclosed to me. I was spend-
ing some time in a mining camp in the Needles in
which I was interested. One evening I listened
to the story, told by himself, of the shameful and
shameless life of one of the miners. He neither
had nor claimed a conscience, didn't know the dif-
ference between morality and immorality, al-
though showing an instinctive preference for the
latter. He filled out chapters of his own iniqui-
ties with less emphasis than a schoolboy would
give to a perfunctory recitation. In the Civil
War he had been a bounty jumper, and must be
drawing a dozen pensions now.

His colorless voice took on a trace of emotion
as he lamented the hard fate that caught him once
as he was getting away and shipped him to Fort
Fisher, where he had to stand fire for once. I
tried to prove by him that "The way of the trans-
gressor is hard," but he declined to confirm the
argument. He brightened up as he casually in-
formed me that his softest job had been smug-
gling aguardiente and cigars on my ships. I

STEAMSHIPS AND SUBSIDIES 221

must have looked incredulous, for Larkin con-
tinued in the same droning tone:

"Don't s'pose you remember how I helped you
forrad to the pilot house that time we burned
sugar on the Morro?"

I wondered then, half a lifetime after the
Missouri tragedy, if the key had been thrust in
my hand up there on the crest of the continent,
two thousand miles away. For it was a demi-
john of aguardiente stowed away above the fire-
room of the Missouri, broken as that craft was
tossed about in a storm, that caused the calamity.
So quickly did the flames spread that men were
burned to death in attempting to launch boats on
the leeward side as the steamer wallowed in the
trough of the sea, while those that were launched
on the windward side were dashed to pieces while
being lowered. Just a few of those on board
were saved by clinging to a small raft that was
being carried on deck as freight. Among the
lost were two brothers of Grover Cleveland, the
elder of whom, Lewis, was on his way to Nassau,

222 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

where he was running the Royal Victoria Hotel.
Grover Cleveland went down to Nassau by our
next boat to take charge of his brother's affairs.

There was never a thought of omitting any
precaution prescribed by law or sanctioned by
custom, and no economy was ever knowingly
practiced at the peril of human life, yet it was
long before I ceased to read editorials suggesting
the occasional hanging of a steamship president,
"to encourage the others," or some modification
of Punch's advice to tie a railroad director to the
cowcatcher of every locomotive. Especially was
it rubbed into me that the Bienville had recently
been burned in the same waters and that every
passenger had escaped. In such comments it was
not mentioned that the Bienville was abandoned
in a calm, the passengers embarked at leisure
in boats which were afterwards provisioned and
supplied with everything that could be thought of
in the long hours of opportunity afforded, and
that conditions made the whole affair a picnic.

Yet there was one precaution that was not
taken, that no real steamship man of those days

STEAMSHIPS AND SUBSIDIES 223

would have omitted, and by this I mean men like
Commodores Vanderbilt and Garrison, and not
such imitations as a yacht club commodore, a
president of Pacific Mail, and least of all myself.
That precaution, sacred in the minds of many
successful men in other lines of enterprise, is:

"Never have anything to do with an unlucky
man."

Garrison himself hammered it into me in the
matter of the Missouri, but I smiled at his super-
stition. Owing to the death of a captain, we had
to put some one in command of the Missouri,
which was due to sail at once. Captain Green
was in port, was familiar with the route, and had
long sailed for the Atlantic Mail on its steamer
Eagle. This boat while in his command had
been wrecked on Body Island. It had been
properly in charge of the mate at the time of the
disaster and the captain was exonerated of blame
by the underwriters. Captain Green was the
only man available for our purpose at the mo-
ment, there was no reason, only superstition, why
we should not engage him, and he was sent out in

2M WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

command of the Missouri only to bravely meet his
death a few days later.

The steamship company was steadily running
behind, but a plan of betterment occurred to me.
An amazing percentage of the revenues of the
Government came through the duties collected
on the tobacco, sugar, etc., carried in our ships,
while our compensation for carrying the mails
was niggardly in the extreme. The postage on
letters was ten cents, seven of which was for the
ocean trip. If the Government would give us
this ocean postage, keeping the three cents land
postage for itself loss would be turned into profit.
To Washington I betook myself to try and influ-
ence legislation in this direction.

I became a member of the Third House and
within the next few months established an ex-
haustive political acquaintance. I don't think a
Senator or Member of the House escaped me. I
was in with the correspondents, and had an un-
usual acquaintance with journalistic New York.
I remember Dana's sarcastic smile as he blue
penciled the list of Senators to whom I wished

STEAMSHIPS AND SUBSIDIES 225

letters from him. Whitelaw Reid sent me a
bunch of introductions for which I had asked,
with a note saying that he had omitted writing to
Conklin for reasons that the excellent Roscoe
would doubtless furnish if asked. I was able to
be of service to Col. Tom Scott and in return
got his good word in quarters where it was
needed, besides the offer of his private car when-
ever I could use it to help my plans.

Stockwell was seeking a subsidy for Pacific
Mail, but I could neither help nor be helped by
him. The work was obnoxious to begin with and
Stockwell's only thought was to buy the votes he
wanted. He succeeded in this and bought his
subsidy for something like a million dollars.
Garrison was offered a Brazil Mail subsidy for
half a million dollars, but went home using lurid
language.

I was principled against buying legislation and
besides I hadn't the money. All I asked of the
Government was a fair division of our joint earn-
ings, ocean postage to us, land postage to Uncle
Sam. Of course I gave dinners, oodles of them,

226 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

mostly of much informality, but with Sam Ward,
the famous bon vivant, in charge and the viands
always flavored with Attic salt. For there were
brilliant correspondents, essayists, poets, men of
letters, like Swinton, Townsend, Piatt, O'Con-
nor, Walt Whitman, and many others, always
ready to be drawn upon. Sometimes the charm
of a dinner to me was in what followed it, when a
little group of men like Walt Whitman, O'Con-
nor, and Swinton remained to continue some dis-
cussion that had been started at the table.

I can never forget one night when the group
broke up because the house wanted to close and
Walt Whitman took my arm for a walk on Penn-
sylvania Avenue. We walked to the Capitol and
back to the Willard House, where Whitman sat
down on the curb with his feet in the gutter and
I took my place beside him. For an hour we
conversed, that is he talked and I listened in rapt
attention. The Spirit of Poetry dominated him
that night and the pathos of his great "My Cap-
tain" possessed him. Poetry, philosophy, his

STEAMSHIPS AND SUBSIDIES 227

hospital and other experiences were drawn upon
to play upon my heart strings.

Often men high in the army were present at
these dinners and from them many a military and
political secret found their way to the press in
such form that their authors could technically
deny responsibility for the publication they had
eagerly sought. The correspondents were a
loyal lot and many a grave secret they buried, but
it was hard to muzzle William Swinton in mili-
tary matters after once giving him an opening,
and I recall how he annoyed General Banks by a
two-column display in the New York Times of
twice as much as the General intended to have
published. George Alfred Townsend filed every-
thing he heard in his capacious memory and up to
his recent death was the repository of more po-
litical secrets of the time of which I am writing
than any other man.

It was about this time that I dined at his house
with Blaine, who, on Townsend's initiative,
talked all through the dinner and evening on his

228 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

own presidential chances. This was the first
time I had heard his name mentioned as a candi-
date and it is a coincidence that at a dinner which
I gave about the same time I proposed "the
health of Gen. James A. Garfield, the future
President of the United States."

The last time I was in Washington a lady in-
vited me, with others of the family, to dine out
with her. When dinner was served she reminded
me of what I already suspected, that we were
in the self-same room where many years before
she had heard me propose the health of Garfield
as the future President of the United States. I
told her then what I had concealed before that
the dinner was given because Garfield had asked
to be introduced to that beautiful girl with the
auburn hair who sat in the gallery with me dur-
ing his speech. The lady's grown up sons roared
at this till she blushed as naturally as in the long
ago. And now as I write the stork brings me
a card which tells that the girl is a grandmother
now. There were plenty of beautiful girls in
the families I knew and if chaperons ran short

STEAMSHIPS AND SUBSIDIES 229

it was easy to borrow the wife of a senator or
a general or some one else of distinction and
it was cheering to contemplate the lighting up
of the face of the most ancient statesman when
he was placed beside a pretty and piquant child.

When I counted noses I was sure of winning,
but inertia which is greater than majorities
worked against me. Many who voted for Stock-
well's subsidy for a consideration were commit-
ted to the support of my measure for nothing,
but there was no vis viva in their advocacy of
it. It was dangerously late in the session when
the bill came to the front and it was knifed by a
New York senator who had promised to support
it, but who prevented its consideration by talk-
ing against time on the measure that preceded it.

Conklin always afterwards denied to me that
he intended to defeat my bill, but averred that
the one against which he talked was utterly cor-
rupt and I have little doubt now of his sincerity.
He had ability and irascibility in equal propor-
tions and sufficient vanity to submerge in per-
sonal matters any sense of humor which he may

230 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

have possessed. I remember working through
a summer night, the hottest of a hot season, in
a room in the Hoffman House with Robert G.
Ingersoll and Roscoe Conklin. We were try-
ing to straighten out a telegraph tangle, com-
plicated by the claims and obstructions of many
warring interests. Ingersoll was dripping in his
shirt sleeves, while Conklin was immaculate.
At one time Ingersoll sat back in his chair and
sipping from a tumbler of cracked ice and apolli-
naris exclaimed:

"I can't make head or tail of the controversy
over these contracts."

"Maybe the Senator can tell you, for he has
been on both sides of them," said I, and turning
to Conklin I added playfully, "Pity there isn't a
third side of this case for you to get on, Senator,
isn't it?"

We had a small thunderstorm in that room,
for a few minutes, while Conklin stood up and
talked as if he were addressing the Senate and
Ingersoll leaned back and roared, punctuating

STEAMSHIPS AND SUBSIDIES 231

the oration with bits of humor that were irresist-
ible to me, but not to the senator. It was a fasci-
nating contest but Ingersoll was the bigger man
and when he became serious Conklin subsided.

CHAPTER XII

FROM THE STREET TO THE WILDS

The panic of 1873 was approaching, the panic
which will always be associated with the name of
Jay Cooke, because the succumbing to the inevi-
table of his great enterprise marked the culmi-
nation of a great inflation.

I had warning of the coming calamity for my
own extended enterprises served as aerial con-
ductors bringing wireless messages of the inevi-
table disaster that drew nearer day by day. I
closed up Wall Street interests as far as possible,
reduced steamship expenses wherever it could be
done, and made desperate efforts to realize on
real estate. But it was dead, dead. On paper
I was rich again, but oh, the hollowness of it!
I offered dazzling terms to men with money to
come in and share my success. An offer of
property worth half a million dollars, at current

232

FROM THE STREET TO THE WILDS 233

quotations, for two hundred thousand dollars
was accepted by one capitalist who withdrew at
the eleventh hour. Two other large deals fell
through after nothing was left to arrange but
details. How the suspense did last! I envied
Damocles for it was possible that the hair which
suspended the sword above his head might hold.
But the panic came, the hair broke and the sword
fell.

During my early business activities I was re-
gardless of my health, eating and sleeping when
convenient, often working until daylight for con-
secutive nights and then sleeping the clock
around on Sunday. Sometimes when I had re-
mained late at the office and was asked the next
morning where I had dined on the previous day
I had to confess that I hadn't dined at all. Oc-
casionally this brought me into the hands of a
doctor and I remember the advice of one who
was connected with a big life insurance company :

"You are burning the candle at both ends.
Cut loose from the office for a month. You like
to hunt. Go into the woods where even mes-

234 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

sengers can't reach you, unless you prefer to go
to — Heaven."

I took his advice and plunged into the Adi-
rondack wilds, but the trail I left was so broad
that a messenger followed and found me in camp
at Tupper's Lake. It was not the million dol-
lar so-called camp of to-day, but only a tent in
the wilderness. There was not another habita-
tion on the lake and the nearest resident lived in
a hut some miles distant. I came upon his
place while hunting and found him working in
his patch of a garden. He asked many ques-
tions about my home in New York and I fan-
cied I had impressed him by my replies. Yet
his final comment, made while leaning on his hoe
as I took my leave, was:

"Don't yer kinder hate ter live so fur off?"
This was just before Adirondack Murray in-
troduced these wilds to an ailing world which
filled every cabin with invalids and piled Sara-
toga trunks around it and which set up innumer-
able tents for those whose only hope was in a
miracle.

FROM THE STREET TO THE WILDS 235

Always the wilderness worked miracles with
me and in times of physical ailment or mental
depression I had longed for the solace of the
woods, the mountains, the prairies, or the waters
of the wild. I knew Mayne Reid's stories by
heart and could almost have reproduced Coop-
er's Leather Stocking series from my memory.
It was a dream of my youth to visit the scenes of
these stories, a dream that has since been sub-
stantially realized.

A buffalo hunt on the plains had been planned
for years by my nearest friend and myself. His
chance to carry out this project came at the time
of my deepest distress when I could see no hope
on the horizon. I needed the respite and the
tonic of the trip to restore shattered nerves that
had banished sleep, and bring back the mental
poise and renew the hope that must possess me
before tackling the world again.

While in Washington I had made pleasant
acquaintances with many army officers and re-
ceived frequent invitations to visit army posts,
while my friend, J. Q. A. Ward, had similar

236 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

ones. We were advised to go to Fort Sill, in
the Indian Territory, and start on our buffalo
hunt from there. We took letters of introduc-
tion from General Sheridan and others, but
when we presented them some days after our ar-
rival at the Post they were waved aside by our
courteous hosts who assured us we were most
welcome on our own account and needed no let-
ters. I recall the amusement of a group of offi-
cers when I told them I had had letters of in-
troduction turned down before and instanced
several from Gen. Benjamin F. Butler which he
had given me for presentation to friends in
Charleston and other Southern cities.

We went first to Detroit where I had a little
property that needed attention and thence to
Chicago. Here an old friend tried to shunt us
off from our program, and begged us to go with
him over the ground where he and I had hunted
some years before. He almost succeeded, for
the memory of that other trip was enticing.
Lyons was a friend of my boyhood in New Eng-
land who had become a broker in Chicago.

FROM THE STREET TO THE WILDS 237

Among his customers were railroad men, espe-
cially conductors on lines running out of Chi-
cago. Conductors owned the railroads in those
days and the thought of friends of theirs paying
toll on their lines would have sounded the depth
of inhospitality. On this earlier trip our party
was of four men and two dogs. I am quite sure
that not a dollar was expended for railroad fares
for not only did Lyons's conductor friends pass
us on their own lines but they passed the word
to conductors on other lines and nods and smiles
on such lines took the place of the usual request
for tickets.

Always we were advised where to stop and
always some hospitable home was opened to us
with a team and local hunter as driver and guide
at our disposal. I remember with especial inter-
est our stay at Marshalltown, Iowa, where now
is a considerable city. We drove at will over
the farms on the prairie, constantly getting out
of the wagon as the dogs pointed prairie chick-
ens. I am ashamed to think of our massacre
of the birds, but conservation had not then been

238 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

invented. If we encountered a farmer the con-
versation was likely to be:

"Where's the watermelon patch?"
"Just over that rise about a quarter."
When dinner time came we stopped at the
nearest farmhouse and were welcomed like long-
lost brothers.

From Chicago Ward and I went to St. Louis
and bought tickets from there to Caddo, but
were persuaded by some car acquaintances to
stop at Schell City, Missouri, for a few days.
On our first day there our new friends, Messrs.
Lansing and Sherburn, took us out in a wagon
on the prairie with a boy to drive. It was a day
of amusing misadventure. Our wagon was a
box with boards laid across it for seats. Ward
shot several plover from the wagon and then fir-
ing at a passing duck lost his balance and fell flat
on his back in the bottom of the box with his legs
pointing to the zenith. Our hosts were gentle-
men and polite, but I fear I was neither after I
found that my friend wasn't hurt.

Prairie chickens were abundant and Ward

FROM THE STREET TO THE WILDS 239

hunted them with Lansing and his dog while I
went with Sherburn and his pointer. We had
fair success and were working near each other
when both dogs pointed the same flock of birds.
As we advanced, our positions represented
roughly the corners of a square with the birds
in the center. The dogs were excited and ig-
nored the commands :

"Steady!" and part of the flock rose at long
range. Four guns roared harmlessly, the dogs
rushed in, the rest of the flock rose and the four
remaining barrels were discharged, each one with
effect. I missed the bird I fired at, but hit
Ward ; he missed his bird and me, but stung with
his shot the boy wTho was driving our team at
a distance of about a hundred yards. Lansing
and Sherburn each fired at his own dog in pun-
ishment of disobedience.

The next day we hunted from horseback and
Sherburn was so much better rider than I that
his hits must have equalled my misses, which is
distinctly high praise for him.

From Schell City we took a train to Caddo, a

240 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

station where bull-whackers, as they were called,
brought their teams to get supplies for the army
post. It was a wretched place of a few board
shanties and I was glad to learn that the stage
for Fort Sill would start the next morning.
Bugs in my bed were like Macbeth for they mur-
dered sleep and I got up at midnight to visit a
bull-whacker's camp from which came pistol
shots followed by roars of laughter. Every
teamster wore a big revolver, but the shots were
not from these. There were two rival camps
and they were playing a rough game with their
whips of two feet of handle and thirteen of lash.
The crack of one of these whips was like the re-
port of a rifle and the game was for the cham-
pion of one camp to snatch the hat from the
hand of one of the other from a distance of
twelve feet with the lash of his whip. The pen-
alty if the man holding the hat was touched was
the privilege of a return shot at a designated
part of the champion's body.

It was a rough-looking gang and I feared that
as a tenderfoot I might be the victim of some un-

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FROM THE STREET TO THE WILDS 241

pleasant joke. Yet I walked up to one of the
men who standing in the light of the big camp-
fire was playfully cracking his whip, missing
only by inches some of his companions who were
sitting and smoking nearby. As I approached
he was threatening to cut the pipe out of the
mouth of a man who warned him of dire things
that would happen if he were touched by the lash.
When I held out my hand for the whip it was
given to me, but when I started to snap it a re-
straining hand was laid upon me and the bull-
whacker said:

"If you ain't used to those whips you'll hurt
yourself!"

I thanked him for the warning, but said I
would be careful and then drawing back the lash
as I had seen him do it felt its business end curl
about my forehead with a never-to-be-forgotten
sting. Was there a shout of laughter from the
rough onlookers? Not a bit of it, nothing but
sympathy, and when I declared that the hurt
was nothing and insisted on learning how to do
the trick I had kindly advice and assistance until

24£ WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

I got so that I could crack the whip without
cracking my head, but it never was safe for by-
standers.

Upon the frontiers and in the wilds I have met
many rough classes of men with not a few of ill-
repute as murderers, but I have never been as-
saulted nor can I recall any insult from such
people. Courtesy has been customary, foul lan-
guage rebuked by companions, and even profan-
ity modified in my presence. Of course I haven't
made the fool mistake known as "putting on
airs.

From Caddo we took a stage for a nearly two
hundred mile ride to Fort Sill. Excepting short
stops for meals at stage stations and an hour at
Governor Harris's of the Chickasaw nation, the
ride was continuous. Ward with an itinerant
preacher slept in the body of the stage while my
couch was in the boot on the mail bags beneath
the feet of the driver.

We were welcomed royally at Fort Sill and
were likelv to be killed with kindness so far as
our hunting hopes were concerned. Entertain-

FROM THE STREET TO THE WILDS 243

ments were planned and nearby excursions pro-
posed while the Indians and buffaloes we wanted
were kept out of sight and avoided in conversa-
tion. A formal party, a wolf hunt, a ride to
Medicine Bluff, and a visit to some Caddo and
Kiowa camps were crowded into our first two
days.

General Davidson, who was in command of
the Post, entertained us one day and his daugh-
ter accepted my invitation to a drive. When I
appeared with the ambulance outfit which was the
proper thing to do, Miss Davidson asked :

"Where is }^our revolver?"

"I hadn't thought of wearing it while driving
with a lady."

"Then I cannot go with you," said she and
the General appearing emphasized her statement
and privately explained to me the duty of a man
to a lady in his charge if they chanced to be at-
tacked by Indians and capture was inevitable.
He added that even an officer was not blamed if
in a battle with Indians he saved his last shot for
himself. When I spoke of this to one of his cap-

244 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

tains he took from his pocket a derringer, say-
ing:

"You needn't mention this, but I guess most
of us carry them."

Several officers applied for leave to accom-
pany us on a buffalo hunt with Quirtz Quip, chief
of the Yamparico Comanches, and his band.
We were ready to start the next morning when a
blow fell upon me in the shape of a telegram
which the stage brought in calling me back to
meet a messenger who had important papers for
me to sign.

I hated that two hundred miles by stage but
when at the end of it I found my messenger and
signed the papers that it was thought were
needed I rejoiced at the prospect of taking the
trip for the third time. Throughout this jour-
ney the drivers and I had the stage to ourselves.
One afternoon between Smith Paul Valley and
Elm Springs we saw a balloon slowly settling
and sinking down beyond a roll in the prairie
about three miles south of us. The driver was
obdurate when I begged him to drive across the

FROM THE STREET TO THE WILDS 245

prairie to the relief of whoever might be in the
balloon. He said that he carried the United
States mail and had no right to leave his route.
I proposed to take one of his horses and ride to
where the balloon had fallen, but he refused, add-
ing that we wrere in an Indian country where it
wasn't safe for a white man to travel alone.
Long afterward I was sorry that I had not been
more insistent for I read of the discovery of the
collapsed balloon and I believe the body of one
of the aeronauts.

At Fort Sill I heard with dismay that Ward
and the officers had been gone with the Indians
for two days, that it was not likely that they
could be found, and that it would not be safe to
attempt it since there was trouble with the Kio-
was and there were plenty of them in the coun-
trv where the hunt was to be. General David-
son advised me not to go, but I was urgent and
he good-natured and he told me I could have the
best horse at the post, that Jack Stillwell would
jump at the chance to go with me, and that he
could find the hunting party if any one living

246 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

could. It was dusk when I got his consent and
half an hour later we were off. I don't remem-
ber what baggage I took excepting the Spencer
rifle and army revolver which with cartridges I
carried and the shotgun which Stillwell carried
for me.

The orderly who was instructed to get for me
the best horse at the post must have understood
that it was the biggest that was wanted. The
brute I bestrode was seventeen hands, or perhaps
it was seventeen feet, high and it had the gait
of a camel. As I rode beside Stillwell whom I
couldn't see through the blackness of the night
I felt that riding a trip hammer for a while would
have been a relief. We had ridden forty miles
and it was near morning when Stillwell sug-
gested camping until dajTlight.

'Why not go on and have it over with?" I
asked.

"I don't like to ride up to an Indian camp in
the night. They might not hit us, but they'd
be likely to try."

FROM THE STREET TO THE WILDS 247

"How do you know their camp is near
here?"

"I don't, but they can't be very far away if
they came where I think they did. There is a
creek not far ahead and it is likely they camped
by that. Our camp will have to be dry and we
can't build a fire either."

"Won't it be safe to have fire?"

"It'll be safer not to have it."

I followed his example as he slid from his sad-
dle, which he placed on the ground for a pillow
and tied one end of the lariat around his pony's
neck and the other to his own wrist. He told me
that I could sleep if I wanted to, that his pony
was a good watch-dog and could smell an Indian
a mile.

It was a dry and chilly camp. Our canteens
had been empty for hours and fire was barred.
Every bone in my body ached from the all-night
pounding of the big brute that I had borrowed
at Fort Sill. The saddle had skinned me, the
Spencer rifle in its sheath had bruised the flesh

248 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

of my leg, and my heavy army revolver had ham-
mered my hip to a jelly. I couldn't swallow the
dry bread that scratched my parched throat, but
I was happy, supremely happy.

The realization of my boyhood dreams was
around me. The Spirit of the prairies possessed
my soul and shucked off the metropolitan husk
that was smothering it.

Jack Stillwell, my companion, though yet a
boy in years, was the best scout in the Indian
country, and five years before at the Alamo of
the plains, Beecher's Island, had saved For-
sythe's command, by a deed as daring as was ever
performed by a human being.

As we lay side by side on the prairie that night
beneath the stars, in a silence broken at times by
the far-off howl of a great gray wolf, the nearby
cry of a yelping coyote, the rustling of heavy
wings as unseen birds flew over us, and the occa-
sional stamp of a restless pony, Jack told the
wonderful story. In words that burned and
tones, the memory of which thrill me to-day, he
described the terrible charge of the Cheyennes,

FROM THE STREET TO THE WILDS 249

led by Roman Nose, upon the little band which
they outnumbered more than ten to one, while
from the banks above thirty times their number
of Arapahoe, Sioux, Comanche, and Kiowa sav-
ages poured upon the fated few a plunging fire.

He pictured a charge that broke only when
the flashes from the weapons of the assailed
burned the bodies of the foremost assailants and
has never been paralleled in the history of Indian
warfare.

He spoke of a night spent in creeping among,
and past, hostile camps, and a day in lying un-
der the blazing sun within a few hundred feet of
scores of hostile Indians, with death by torture
the sure result of the discovery that seemed in-
evitable. Jack's voice was tense as he talked of
Beecher and of his death in this, his last camp;
and then, in return, I told him of Fred Beech-
er's first camp of ten years before, when he and
I, schoolmates in far-off Andover, had slept
in the deep snow through an unforgetable Feb-
ruary night beside our first campfire, freezing
but happy, dreaming even then of some future,

250 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

far-away camp on the very prairies where then
we were lying.

Stiff and sore from my long night ride, in the
first rosy light of dawn, I climbed painfully upon
my horse and when the sun rose I was in the
Comanche camp.

CHAPTER XIII

CAMPING WITH COMANCHES

Ward and the officers cheered mightily as I
rode into camp, prodding my Bucephalus to his
most picturesque efforts, while even the stern
visage of Iron Mountain, a Comanche chief,
broke into a smile. Ward, in the interests of art
and history, outlined the sketch which should
adorn these pages. My legs were as short as
my horse's were long, and when I could reach the
stirrup from the ground I couldn't from the sad-
dle. So I used the long stirrup as a stepladder
to climb aboard, and for a stirrup put my foot
between the straps that supported it.

Breakfast was on when we arrived and after
swallowing a quart of hot coffee I made the ac-
quaintance of buffalo hump and buffalo marrow,
by eating most of the ribs that composed the for-
mer and spreading slices of bread with thick

251

252 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

layers of the latter. I said "How!" to the In-
dians about me and started a long-time friend-
ship with our interpreter, Horace Jones, ex-edi-
tor and ex-invalid from St. Louis, but now
Cocha Pareivo, "Buffalo Chief" of the Coman-
ches, with similar titles in other tribes, for he was
like Hay's Jim Bludsoe with "one wife in
Natchez under the hill and another one down in
Pike." He would jabber with Indians of many
tribes, talk with the toughest teamster, or correct
a misquotation of Burns or Byron, Shakespeare
or Solomon. His chiefest treasure was a pack of
wonderful greyhounds, the gift of an English-
man whom he had served. He had the beautiful
creatures with him and surely the sport they gave
us was never exceeded on earth.

While we finished our breakfast the Indians
were preparing to attack a herd of buffalo that
were grazing among some mesquite trees near
the horizon. One after another of the Indians
mounted his pony, naked as when he was born.
He carried in his hand his bow and the quiver
of arrows hung on his shoulder. My own tired

CAMPING WITH COMANCHES 253

horse was picketed out and I was given a buffalo
pony with a gait like a rocking horse. I wanted
to stop and shoot the animated trip-hammer that
had tortured me so cruelly all night, but I hadn't
time.

As we swept across the prairie at an easy lope,
Tavetossa, White Sun, a young Comanche, rode
beside me, and with hands that talked told me
how to play the game. Even when the herd took
fright and every pony was dashing for it at his
utmost speed, the youth stayed by me. In my
struggles to guide the creature I rode, to dodge
mesquite trees, whose out-thrusting branches
threatened to tear me from my pony, to avoid
prairie dog holes, and follow the game all at the
same time, I was falling hopelessly behind.
Tavetossa saw my trouble and throwing the rope
which served him for a bridle upon his pony's
neck motioned to me to do the same. In despair
I threw down the reins and put my trust in Prov-
idence and the pony.

Relieved of restraint, the pony flew as if on
wings, and as we overtook the herd the young

254 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

Indian, with a nod and a smile to me, dashed in
and out among the buffaloes driving arrow after
arrow into victim after victim. The pony that
bore me, grateful that I had given him his head,
carried me beside a great, lumbering beast,
shaggy of coat and fierce of beard. He was so
near that I could have laid my hand upon his
shoulder and I thrust my revolver against his
ribs and fired. As my pony dodged the side
thrust of the wounded animal, I was only saved
from falling beneath his hoofs by clutching my
saddle.

Near me an Indian boy of ten years, on his
first hunt, as graceful on his pony as I was awk-
ward on mine, was riding beside a buffalo and
making a pincushion of him with arrows which
he had not strength to drive into his vitals.
When the chase was over and this papoose had
worried his victim to death, he strutted about
with his blanket worn as if it were the toga of a
Roman emperor, and with an expression of dig-
nity greater than any emperor ever dared as-
sume.

CAMPING WITH COMANCHE S 255

After the hunt a procession of squaws with
ponies, papooses, and tepees, trailed across the
prairie and made a new camp near the carcasses,
the flesh of which they dried and smoked, and
pegging out the hides fleshed and tanned them in
Indian fashion to the softness and pliability of
a woolen blanket.

I was watching one day the squaw of Quirtz
Quip as she worked over a fire or pegged out a
skin, while her nursing child toddled after her,
clutching her as opportunity offered and getting
his supper at intervals, a mouthful at a time,
from the parent who seemed neither to help nor
to hinder him. I made signs to the squaw to
give the papoose a chance, and motioned to her
to take him in her arms. She shook her head
and then picking up the infant by one arm
dropped him in my lap with the request, ex-
pressed by unmistakable signs, that I attend to
her duty of feeding him. As she went laughing
back to her work, even the petrified face of her
husband broke into a half-smile.

Ward was an excellent rider, measured bv the

256 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

white man's standard, and he carried his rifle in
the buffalo chase and killed his bull in good shape.
It was after the day's work was done and we
were sitting near the big fire where the squaws
were roasting huge pieces of buffalo for dinner
that Quirtz Quip took up my Spencer rifle and
asked Jones why I didn't carry it and if it was
because I couldn't shoot it. Jones stood up for
his color and said I could beat him and his rifle
with it. A match was made, a certain number
of pistol cartridges against a bead needle case.
He chose a distance of about forty yards and
Ward fastened a card to a tree by pinning it with
his knife. Quirtz Quip rested his muzzle loader
on a stump and missed the paper while my off-
hand shot ruined Ward's knife. That shot ought
to have earned me an Indian name, the equiv-
alent of "Sure Shot" for example, but Jones told
me that to them I was "The Man with Four
Eyes," because of the spectacles I wore.

We were camped by a little stream bordered
by trees to which wild turkeys came from the
prairie to roost. Jones told me that Tavetossa

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CAMPING WITH COMANCHES 257

could find where the turkeys roosted and that
with my shotgun I could kill a barrel of them.
I did better than that, though now I would call
it worse. One night Tavetossa and I rode two
or three miles down the creek. He then led me
into a clump of trees and pointing upward
showed me a score or two of black bunches which
I knew to be turkeys. My shots were point
blank for I couldn't see the sight of my gun, a
pin-fire Westley Richards. I dropped the tur-
key on the lowest branch with the first shot and
thereafter fired as fast as I could stuff cartridges
into the gun. The birds were confused or stu-
pid, for they were slow to fly. They were so
crowded that at first I must have killed two or
three at a shot while many later shots failed to
get any. For a time it rained turkeys while the
barrels of my gun became blisteringly hot.

When the carnage was over we gathered up
eleven wild turkeys. We packed them on our
ponies but when we were near the camp I had
them all hung upon my pony and myself and
rode up to the camp fire around which my friends

258 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

were sitting, almost hidden by more than my own
weight of turkeys. The boisterous congratula-
tions of men of my own race were as nothing to
the distinction conferred upon me by the copper-
colored native Americans. Jones told me that
the Indians had agreed that I was "Heap Damn
Big Turkey Chief" and was to be known by that
title thereafter. He added, humorously, that a
few remarks addressed to them in the Comanche
tongue would be appropriate and appreciated by
them. This much can be said in defense of my
massacre of the turkeys, that not a pound of their
flesh went to waste. Iron Mountain alone ac-
counted for most of one gobbler at a meal.

Running buffaloes was rare sport for a time,
though the graceful control of their ponies by
the Indians made my clumsy horsemanship a
continuous mortification and sometimes even a
danger to me. There was no limit to the number
of the creatures that could be killed, but there
was to the meat that could be cured and the hides
that could be cared for. The Indians of that
day were conservationists in comparison with

CAMPING WITH COMANCHES 259

white men whom I knew. Two Englishmen,
one of whom wore a title, showed me little bell
punches each click of which recorded the death
of a buffalo which was then left on the ground
to rot.

While the game was on I stalked and shot
several buffalo bulls which excepting in one in-
stance was devoid of sporting interest.

On that occasion I was crawling through the
grass toward a fine bull which was feeding alone
on the prairie. The great beast was watchful.
I had to lie low and was creeping slowly toward
him when my ears were filled with the loud warn-
ing of a diamond back whose head waved grace-
fully before my face almost or quite within strik-
ing distance. The time that it took me to back
slowly out of reach of the horrible thing is not
measured in my memory by minutes but presents
itself as an indefinite period of dreadful sus-
pense.

When I felt safe I made a wide detour and
soon was within fair range of the buffalo which
was then standing broadside to me. Resting

260 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

upon the ground as I was I could have put a
dozen consecutive bullets within a four inch cir-
cle at that distance, but the missile I sent with
careful aim produced no visible effect. The buf-
falo stood unmoved by shock of missile or report
of rifle. It had ceased feeding and my wonder-
ing gaze rested upon it for minutes as it seemed
to me. Then throwing a cartridge from maga-
zine to barrel I was again taking careful aim
when the grand old bull sank slowly to the earth,
dead, with a bullet through his heart!

Several times in the past forty years have I
witnessed a similar phenomenon. In Colorado
I sent a bullet through the heart of an elk which
stood unmoving until I had followed it with four
others and later found that the palm of my hand
would have covered the five bullet holes in the
body of the creature. With a similar result I
struck a tarpon with a harpoon off Cape Sable.
Instead of the leap that would not have failed to
follow once in a thousand times, the tarpon lay
dead with no more motion of fin or muscle than

CAMPING WITH COMANCHE S 261

if it had been chiseled from the silver that it
resembled.

Ward had taken with him a lot of wax and
spent his spare hours modeling a buffalo bull
while admiring Comanches stood around as if
awestricken by the work of the Great White
Medicine Man. Often the squaws turned aside
from their work of curing the meat and fleshing
the hides to gaze on the wonder worker. Tave-
tossa and I became great chums and rode over
the prairie and tramped through the scant belt
of woods from morning until night. His sense
of the presence of game was uncanny. He held
up his hand for caution as we approached game
that he could not have seen and must have only
divined their presence. He saw coyotes before
they saw him and before I could see them when
he pointed them out. He knew where the wild
turkeys were without looking and no bunch of
grass was thick enough to hide the rattlesnake
from him. Yet he had the superstition, common
among the Indians I have known, that calamity

262 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

would follow the killing of one of these reptiles.
Neither the jack rabbit on the ground nor the
eagle in the tree escaped his sight. When he
laid his hand on my arm and whispered "Qua-
ha&al33 no antelope could be seen by me until we
had crept many yards nearer and the creature
was within easy range. I shot it against Tave-
tossa's protest, for being, like other Indians, a
poor shot himself, he always sought to get need-
lessly near the game.

Just once was his instinct at fault, but that
gave me the red letter day of the hunt. We
were walking slowly and silently in a bit of open
woods studying each tree before us, when the In-
dian's hand rested on my shoulder with a sharp
pressure that enjoined silence and attention.
His own silence told me that the game was too
near to permit him to speak and as we stood mo-
tionless, scarcely daring to breathe, my eyes
studied the nearby trees. As they casually
rested on a tree within less than fifteen feet of
me there flashed upon them the form of a panther
crouched on its lowest limb. It was called a pan-

CAMPING WITH COMANCHES 263

ther then, but I know it as a mountain lion now.
The creature must have been in full sight for
minutes and in another minute I should have
been within reach of its claws but for the Indian,
for I was studying trees that were more distant.

I didn't know then how little danger there was
from the fierce-looking cowardly brute, but I am
sure that my nerves were steady during the tense
ten seconds I took to raise my rifle until its sights
were aligned on the creature's head. As the bul-
let passed through his brain a convulsive move-
ment threw him clear of the branch, but he was
dead when he touched the ground.

When the panther skin was brought to the
camp for Quirtz Quip's squaw to dress I felt sure
of my Indian promotion. I thought I might
trade off my turkey title for something like
"Slayer of Wild Beasts," but Jones told me that
killing a panther that was within a rod of me
or shooting an antelope or running down a
dozen buffalo wasn't half as big a thing as bring-
ing in a cart load of turkeys.

"The Indians are not used to shotguns," said

264 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

he, "and what you did was 'Big Medicine/ which
you are not likely to beat to their minds. Your
turkey name is going to stick."

But it didn't, for the very next day an eagle
lit near the top of a tree which was fifty-five
vards from where I stood and I killed it with mv
revolver. When Jones reported that the In-
dians were amazed at the shot, which happily had
been made in the presence of several of them,
he added,

"You have earned your new name and you are
'Queena Pareivo/ or Eagle Chief, to the
Comanches, but I'd like to bet that you couldn't
make that shot once in a hundred times."

I turned the eagle over to Tavetossa and never
saw him thereafter without some of its feathers
in his hair.

When the hunt was over we started on a slow
trail for Fort Sill. The Indian ponies, except-
ing those used for running buffalo or on less
peaceful occasions as war ponies, were heavily
burdened and their pace was slow. Jack Still-
well had days before gone back with the officers to

CAMPING WITH COMANCHES 265

the Post and Jones rode at the head of the cav-
alcade. His disciplined greyhounds kept near
him and jack rabbits could start up at their feet
or a band of antelopes gaze at them from within
easy rifle range without being noticed.

About once a day there came from Jones a
wild call which I never succeeded in imitating
well enough to fool those hounds. Before the
cry could have reached the ears of the quarry
every greyhound had leaped in air and in a sec-
ond was bounding toward the band of antelopes
which Jones had in mind when he made the call.
Yet the dogs were scarcely quicker than the
ponies after the first chase had told them what
was meant by the cry. My own pony was
crazily eager for the fray and I think it would
have broken his heart to have been held back.
After the start the greyhounds settled down with
bellies close to the ground, with their long, slim
bodies sweeping like shadows across the prairie.

Did we yell?

When that cry was heard everybody yelled,
white men, Indians, squaws, papooses, and those

266 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

of us who followed the hounds never stopped
while the chase was on. The antelopes did not
hold to a straight course and we saved many
yards by taking the chord of the arc of their line
of flight. The prairie spread out before us, car-
peted with short buffalo grass, with only slight
rolls between us and the horizon. There was an
occasional little arroya over which the ponies
leaped, or a larger one down and up which they
scrambled while I clutched the saddle and hap-
pily was not thrown, while the Comanches rid-
ing without saddle or bridle could no more have
been separated from their steeds than the human
half of a centaur could have fallen from the
equine legs. The ponies needed no urging, yet
the quirt was sometimes used as when two In-
dians, racing neck and neck, tried to forge ahead
of each other. On one such occasion when Tave-
tossa had beaten Onawia (Gap-in-the-salt), the
latter challenged the former to a regular race
after camp had been made that evening.

To one who doubted the Indian's sense of hu-
mor the gravity of Tavetossa's demeanor as he

CAMPING WITH COMANCHES 267

told Jones he wanted catoka (candles) would
have been enlightening.

"What do you want candles for?" asked Jones
and the Indian's reply as translated was:

'Want them for Onawia. He will be so badly
beaten that it will be dark when he gets in and
he will need them to see his way."

Running antelopes was a humane amusement
which even the antelopes enjoyed for none were
ever caught when we hunted them, although the
pack had the reputation of having run down sev-
eral.

Tavetossa was a fun-loving Indian and he
daily challenged me to lasso him. We careered
over the prairie at such speed as I could manage
while I chased and he dodged as I swung the
lasso. Always he was reckless and out of scores
of casts a few caught pony or man, until Jones
told me that Quirtz Quip was afraid that I would
hurt his young man because I couldn't control
my pony. This was a blow to my pride for I
had just made up my mind that I could really
ride.

268 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

Another blow awaited me. I was riding
ahead of the procession when I met a strange In-
dian who passed within a few feet of me, looking
neither to the right nor the left. He spoke to
Tavetossa who was following me and that In-
dian laughed. Thereupon I led Tavetossa to
Jones to learn what the strange Indian had said.
Jones' translation was:

"He said you no wano (no good), ride
like this," and he flapped his elbows in imitation.

The joyous life in the open obsessed me and
even its memory brings a cry of the spirit that
responds to the words in Lascar

"I want free life and I want fresh air."

CHAPTER XIV

HISTORIC INDIAN COUNCILS

Our last camp with the Indians was at Sixteen
Mile Creek, about that distance from Fort Sill.
It was in a beautiful tree-surrounded glade, in
the center of which burned what Jones told us
was a council fire. He said that this was our
last night together and that the Indians wanted
to hold a council with us.

I never attended a more formal gathering nor
one that approached it in romantic surroundings
and interest. Old warriors and young braves
sat in a great circle around the council fire, be-
neath the mystic rays of the round, full moon.

For an hour not a word was spoken. Slowly
the pipe was passed, smoked by each in turn,
filled, passed, and smoked again. I began by
thinking of it as a joke, then as of some strange,
impressive mummery, but at last I was carried

269

270 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

away by some spirit of the past and I lived in
the legends I had heard and was a part of the
tales I had read. Leather Stocking was real to
me, the wise Chingachgook was in our circle, and
crafty Mingoes were all about us. Even Hia-
watha wasn't quite a dream and when at last
Booeyahtoyou (Iron Mountain), a great chief
of the Comanches, rose, slowly bared his scarred
breast, and lifting his hand burst into oratory,
I forgot that I knew little of his language, since
I didn't need, for I understood him. Yet the
words of his speech came to us, for as pauses be-
tween sentences were extended, Jones had time
to translate them to us. The speech was long
and the attempt to summarize it for cold type is
disappointing for the words will sound conven-
tional and the appeal at the end of the speech
jars upon its sentiment when read as it did not
do when delivered.

"You have come from the home of the Great
White Father to see how we poor prairie Indians
live. We are few and weak with our faces
turned toward the setting sun. You come

HISTORIC INDIAN COUNCILS 271

from where it rises and are like the blades of
grass on the prairie. We are only poor Indians,
but we want to be friendly to your people. We
have taken you to our home to show you how we
live. We have tired our ponies to show you how
we kill buffalo and dress their hides. We have
given you moccasins and arrows and all the
things that you want. If we had more we
would give more to you. You have many horses,
food, clothing, and everything. We are going
back to our people and they will ask us how our
white friends were pleased and they will know
how much you were pleased from the things we
will show them that you have given us."

Quirtz Quip's speech was on similar lines and
Ward first made reply:

"You are not poor for you have great hearts
and your tongues are not forked. You are
brave and many of you have good wives and chil-
dren and these are better than big wigwams and
fine clothes. You have been kind and we thank
you and we shall find some things to give you to
show how we feel toward you. We have heard

272 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

of the Comanches for many years, that they were
the bravest people on the plains and we are glad
to see that we heard truth, and we are glad that
they have such great chiefs as Iron Mountain
and Quirtz Quip. We are glad that this great
people are friendly to the pale faces and we shall
tell our friends when we go home, and the great
chiefs of the pale faces when we see them that
the Comanches want to be at peace with the white
man and will always treat them well."

On our arrival at Fort Sill we found the Post
excited over the coming of Governor Davis of
Texas with Satanta, a Kiowa Chief, and Big
Tree, a member of that tribe, as prisoners.
These Indians had been captured while raiding
in Texas and were held in durance by that State.
The Federal Government had given promise of
the release of the prisoners to their tribe and the
Governor had brought them to Fort Sill with-
out, however, having fully decided to surrender
them. A council with the Indians was ap-
pointed for three days thereafter during which
time Ward modeled a head of Satanta's son, a

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HISTORIC INDIAN COUNCILS 273

fine-looking Kiowa, while I rode off to visit the
Apache and Comanche camps in search of Indian
arrows and other curiosities. Happening to
look back when a mile or two from the Post, I
saw a lot of cavalrymen riding at full speed to-
ward me. I waited until they reached me and
then said to the officer in charge:

"Are you looking for me, Lieutenant?''

"The General sends word that there is so much
disaffection over the Satanta trouble that it isn't
safe for you to go out of sight of the Post and he
has made me responsible for you, so I'm going
wherever you go."

"I'm glad of that, but was that all the General
said?'9

"I understood him to observe, quite unoffi-
cially, however, that he didn't mind your being
killed so much as he did the chance of criticism
from headquarters."

The lieutenant helped me in my trading at
the Apache camp and at the Comanche camp I
found Tavetossa. I was collecting arrows from
different tribes and I made signs that I wanted

274 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

some from Tavetossa. He was not very well up
in the sign language and understood that I was
asking for his bow which he brought me, but I
let the mistake pass without correction.

The first council took place at Fort Sill, Octo-
ber 4th, 1873. Long speeches were made by
Lone Wolf, Kicking Bird, and other Kiowas,
but Governor Davis was not ready to give up the
prisoners and tension was high when the council
adjourned. The following day was Sunday and
Governor Davis, General Davidson, U. S. Com-
missioner Smith, Ward, and I rode horseback in
the morning to Medicine Bluff. The officials dis-
cussed the situation and it was urged that Sa-
tanta and Big Tree be given back to their tribe
as had been promised, but Governor Davis said
his people were very much incensed over the
numerous Indian raids into their State and that
he must have something to show in return for his
release of the captives. He was willing to give
them up if other raiders could be arrested in their
places.

On October 6th another council was held at

HISTORIC INDIAN COUNCILS 275

which nearly two hundred armed Indians from
several tribes were present, and less than half
that number of unarmed whites. Commissioner
Smith spoke sharply to the Indians, exciting
them greatly, and replies, mostly denouncing the
Government for its bad faith, were made by
Lone Wolf, Kicking Bird, Asatowyet, Buffalo
Good, Quirtz Quip, Satanta's father, Warluka,
and others. Commissioner Smith replied by
definitely demanding that five alleged Comanche
raiders be given up and refusing until that was
done to release Satanta and Big Tree. The
feeling among the Indians when the council
closed was so intense that it was obvious that a
spark would have started a terrible conflagra-
tion. The feeling of the officers of the Post was
voiced to me by one of the captains :

"If the Government stands by the Commis-
sioner an Indian war is going to begin right
here."

The officers were a loyal lot and in the pres-
ence of soldiers or citizens kept mum on all mat-
ters connected with Government policy, but I

£76 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

was taken into the inner circle with the implica-
tion, stronger than a pledge, that I would re-
spect their confidence. I saw none of the feeling
ascribed to Sheridan that the good Indian is a
dead Indian, but always I found sympathy for
these wards of the nation. They had as little
respect for many of the Indian Agents and as
little confidence in the contractors with the
Indian Department as had the Indians them-
selves.

One captain said to me:

"The contractors rob the Indians, the Indian
Agents stand in with the contractors, and when
the Indians resent it the army is turned loose to
kill the poor devils."

The universal opinion of the officers was that
the Indians were right in their demand that
Satanta and Big Tree be given back to their tribe
and that coupling their release with a condition
that other Indians be given up in their place was
an act of bad faith on the part of the Government
which had promised their tribe an unconditional
release of the Kiowa captives.

HISTORIC INDIAN COUNCILS 277

"What can be done if Davis refuses to give up
these Indians?" I asked the ranking officer who
was present.

"He must be persuaded not to refuse, for the
sake of our own people as well as the Indians.
The Government should have made no pledge
without knowing it could carry it out, for the In-
dians cannot be made to believe that it couldn't
keep its promise if it wanted to."

There were officers at Fort Sill who understood
the Indians and were especially friendly to them,
who had become experts in the use of their sign
language, and whom the Indians had come to
trust. Governor Davis talked much with one of
these and became convinced of the gravity of the
situation and the imperative need of convincing
the tribes of the good faith of the Government.

Finally he consented to give up Satanta and
Big Tree, but it wras a real sacrifice. In return
for the concession the Commissioner agreed to
make a later demand for the arrest of the raiders
for whom the Governor had bargained. Davis
knew very well from those best acquainted with

278 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

the Indian character and with the Comanches in
particular how unlikely it was that the Commis-
sioner could succeed in persuading or compelling
the Comanches to surrender five of their people,
and he took long chances of having an unpleasant
explanation to make to his fellow citizens of the
Lone Star State.

Another council was called for the 8th of Octo-
ber, at which a lesser number of Indians ap-
peared, but they were the picked fighting men of
their tribes and all were armed to the teeth. The
soldiers too were under arms in their barracks and
a field piece was ready for service.

The rejoicing was great when the council
opened with the giving up to their tribe of the
Kiowas, Satanta and Big Tree. The release was
unconditional and nothing was said of the de-
mand for Comanche raiders. That came up in
the afternoon at the Indian Agency one and a
half miles from the Post. At this meeting there
were twelve white men and sixty Indians, mostly
Comanches. The demand was made by the Com-
missioner, to which the Indians made savage

HISTORIC INDIAN COUNCILS 279

replies but promised that the chief members of
the tribe would be present on the following day.

The Commissioner was warned not to hold the
council of October 9th at the Indian Agency, far
from possible help from the Post. He was re-
minded of the Canby massacre of only six months
before, which happened while peace negotiations
were in progress. He refused to listen and the
council was held.

There were present at this council Commis-
sioner Smith, his interpreter McCloskey, Dr.
Clary, Jack Stillwell, and myself. If there was
another white man I do not recall him. Ward
was sick and when I looked for a companion I
was told that no one with any sense would go
unless he had to. I did not borrow a pony for
the trip but walked to the Indian Agency. The
Commissioner was there talking to McCloskey,
who looked worried. The room was filled with
Indians, most of whom had a surly or savage look.
My only comfort was that Iron Mountain, Quirtz
Quip, and some of his band were there. I saw
Jack Stillwell sitting on a bench by a window.

a

a-

280 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

"How does it look, Jack?" I asked.

"Bad."

"What are you going to do about it?"

"This is my pony by the window. If I am
alive after the first shot I'll be through the win-
dow and on his back."

'Is it as bad as that?"

'Look for yourself. See how they are armed,
every one of them, rifles, revolvers, bows, — and
watch that fellow handling his knife as if he was
in a hurry to use it. Lone Wolf there is looking
at us with his hand near that silver-plated re-
volver of his. Wonder how he killed the man he
took it from."

"Who is likely to start the trouble?"

"The Commissioner. If he doesn't change his
tune he'll never see Washington again. The
Comanches won't give those fellows up and they
are right about it, and the other Indians will
stand by them."

"I wonder what McCloskey is saying to him so
earnestlv."

(<

He is earnest! He knows. He is telling

HISTORIC INDIAN COUNCILS 281

him just what I am telling you. Ah, that looks
bad, the Commissioner is shaking his head!"

I saw Black Beaver, a Delaware Indian, with
whom I had struck up quite a friendship standing
near me and I asked him :

"What is the trouble, Beaver?"
"Injun very mad. You go way, now!"
Maybe I thought of going, but I had gone
there for adventure and I had found it. Then
how could I face my friends at the Post if I
sneaked away ? Most of the Indians were stand-
ing and there was but one unoccupied seat. It
was on a bench beside Lone Wolf, the crudest
Indian on the plains, and I took it but in no very
hopeful mood.

The Commissioner was a brave man, for he
could not have mistaken his imminent danger, yet
he made clear his demand that the five Comanches
accused of raiding in Texas must be given up.
He told the Indians that this was the command of
the Great Father, that if it was not obeved the
soldiers would come, — more soldiers than they
had ever seen, — and the men wrould be taken,

282 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

even if it meant war that would make the name of
Comanche forgotten on the plains.

Before McCloskey had fully interpreted the
Commissioner's threat, Black Horse, with utter
lack of the decorum that obtains in Indian coun-
cils, sprang forward and with uplifted hand burst
into a flood of impassioned oratory:

"Here are the men you want ! Why don't you
take them ? We will never give them up ! You
say it will be war if we refuse ! Then let it begin
now!"

The declaration of war by Black Horse needed
no interpretation; it was written on the faces of
his hearers and the hand of many an Indian
sought his weapon. Life to me looked like a
matter of seconds only. Recalling Stillwell's
prediction, I glanced toward him. He had risen
from his seat and was leaning toward the window
through which he expected to leap, but his chance
of escape seemed next to nothing. I was un-
armed excepting for the little derringer in my
vest pocket which was useless save as it gave me
the grim chance of taking Lone Wolf with me on

HISTORIC INDIAN COUNCILS 283

my last journey. I slipped the weapon into my
hand which I rested in my lap, and waited for the
signal which seemed near, the first shot to be fired.

Suddenly I felt a heavy hand on my shoulder
and I saw Iron Mountain's face above me as I
wras drawn close to that Indian's breast. Quickly
I was pressed to the nearby corner of the room,
where Iron Mountain, Quirtz Quip, and a dozen
of their band were massed before me. With a
quick pulse of gratitude I realized that they
sought to save my life in the massacre that seemed
certain.

But instead of a signal shot there broke on the
air the voice of Toshaway, oldest chief of the
Comanches. Commanding Black Horse to be
silent and stretching both hands toward his peo-
ple, he exclaimed, —

"Let Toshaway speak!"

Turning to Commissioner Smith he said, —

"We will do all the Great Father asks that is
just. We cannot give up our young men who
have done no wrong. If any of our people have
done wrong we will give them to you to be pun-

284 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

ished. You say that some of our young men are
in Texas now. They shall be given up. Our
warriors will go with your soldiers and find them,
and they shall be punished as the Great Father
wishes."

Toshaway's speech was that of a statesman.
It quieted the passions of his people. It gave the
Commissioner a chance to save his face. The
offer was at once accepted. The terrible tensity
relaxed and again we breathed freely. The
storm cloud passed from the faces of the Indians,
the council quietly dispersed. Thus was a mas-
sacre averted by the masterly tact of Toshaway.

A few days later a detachment of soldiers and
officers in command of Colonel Lawson, accom-
panied by a band of Comanches, started for Red
River and beyond. It was a purely junketing
trip, for the thought of finding a raiding red-
skin never entered the mind of the most san-
guine.

For forty years my own thought of the Indians
has been colored by my memory of Iron Moun-
tain's band of Comanches, who in loyalty to our

HISTORIC INDIAN COUNCILS 285

brief friendship sought to protect me from their
own tribe.

From Montana to New Mexico, from Arizona
to the Everglades of Florida, I have always
found the Indian responsive to kindness. For
his deep distrust of the Government there has
been too much good reason. From Comanche
and Shoshone, from Navajo and Hopi, I have
carried pleas to official Washington. The Flor-
ida Seminoles who have received the least consid-
eration while meriting the most, have long re-
fused to ask anything of the Government, except-
ing to be let alone. For years I have sought to
call public attention to their needs and the effort
has not been without fruit.

Thirty years after the council with the Co-
manches and Kiowas I thought to visit my friends
of the former tribe.

Not a familiar face, not a familiar place did
I find. The only inhabitants that were un-
changed were the few prairie dogs that were left.
Where the council met were the stations of two
great railroad systems. Where I had camped

286 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

far from the habitation of a white man were cities
with churches and colleges, elevators and electric
lights, banks and opera houses. Where then
buffalo grazed in herds of thousands and tens of
thousands were fields of corn and cotton by the
square mile, farmed by white men who leased
them from their Indian owners. The wealthy
Indian proprietors drove around the country with
their families in conveyances of every description,
not even excepting an occasional hearse.

The wildest and most interesting Indian on the
plains had been spoiled. My son Julian had
gone with me to see the wild Indian of whom I
had talked. Civilization had driven him away
and we turned toward the setting sun in pursuit
of him. We came upon many mongrels but it
was not until we reached the hogans of the Nava-
jos, in far-away Arizona that we found what we
sought.

CHAPTER XV

BUFFALO AND DUCK SHOOTING

Ward and I had arranged to leave Fort Sill
and the officers had given an all-night ball in our
honor when he suddenly decided to accept an in-
vitation to join the Red River expedition.

I took the stage for a more than three hundred
mile ride to a railroad station in Kansas, but
couldn't stay in it through the second day's ride.
For from near a stage station called Skeleton
Creek I could see herds of buffaloes, thousands of
them, stretching out on the prairies to the horizon.
The temptation was not to be resisted, I hauled
my trunk off from the stage, said good-bye to the
driver, and made swift acquaintance with Isaac
Walker, the keeper of the station. He was a
quiet, likeable man who had come from the East
and chanced to know friends of mine. As we
were smoking after the good dinner he gave me
I asked if he were ever lonesome.

287

288 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

"Why should I be?" he inquired. "Twice a
week two stage drivers stop to change horses."

"Are those all the callers you have?"

"No, I had another last week. He's out there
now," and Walker nodded toward a freshly made
grave nearby.

"Yes, I heard of that from the driver. Tell
me the story yourself."

"It was the man who drove you who told me
that he had passed a man on a tired horse who
was headed this way. He said the man was a
Mexican and he thought a murderer whom a
party were after, just a few miles back. Soon
after the driver left the man came along and as
he was sliding from his saddle to the ground I
took my rifle from the corner there to hold him
up but he was too quick for me and the bullet
that struck the jamb there came near being the
end of me. He didn't get a chance for another
shot."

"You must have taken a quick aim yourself."

"Didn't take any, fired from my hip, bullet
went through that plate on the belt you see hang-

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BUFFALO AND DUCK SHOOTING 289

ing there. The belt belonged to a man he killed ;
fellows told me about it."

"What fellows?"

"Fellows that were hunting him. They came
along in an hour or two, thanked me for saving
them trouble, ate a big dinner, and were going
away when I called them back. 'When a man
saves you the trouble of killing your own meat, do
you expect him to bury it, too?' said I. They
apologized, borrowed a shovel, dug a nice grave,
put him in, and covered him up handsomely."

"How near do you suppose I can get to those
buffalo?" I asked, pointing to a herd that began
a quarter of a mile away and ended at the
horizon.

"Near as you like. I'll go with you."

We walked a short distance in the open, then
took to a ravine that brought us within little more
than a hundred yards of the herd. From there
we crept on hands and knees through the short
grass, stopping whenever there were signs of
alarm or the buffaloes nearest us looked too stead-
ily our way. We were about forty yards from

290 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

the nearest when a grand old bull walked toward
us and stopping within twenty yards of us began
to paw the ground viciously.

"He thinks we are wolves and you may have to
shoot him."

It wasn't so easy to shoot him. As the brute
faced us there was nothing to fire at but the big
head or the thin leg. And that head, — with the
thick masses of matted hair that hung on the fore-
head, the tough hide, and the thick frontal bone!
Already I had flattened bullets on those skulls,
for the Spencer was not like the rifle of to-day.
But my chance came. Slowly the bull turned till
his shoulder was opposite me and a bullet behind
it brought him to the ground. The buffaloes
near us ran a few yards but seeing that their
leader had quietly lain down they resumed their
grazing. We crawled up to the bull and lay be-
side him for two hours, watching the herd as it
wandered about us, sometimes a hundred within
as many yards. I wished then that I were an
artist. I wish now that I could have then bor-

BUFFALO AND DUCK SHOOTING 291

rowed from the years to come a modern camera,
perchance one of the motion picture kind.

As the buffalo grazed about me they seemed so
much like cattle that I didn't care to shoot
another, but when night was near and we were
ready to go home, Walker suggested that a piece
of tender cow would make a better supper than
anything we could carve out of the bull. There-
upon a cow was shot, meat enough for days car-
ried to the station, and a great feast left for the
wolves, which could be heard howling through
most of the hours of the night. But ah, that
night! That miserable ending of a happy day!
For soon after I lajr down for the night on the
lounge that was to be my couch, the walls of the
cabin changed color, taking on the hue of the
moving host that covered them. The tide
flowed over me and I scraped and scratched and
struggled in vain. I was grateful to a friendly
cat that sat on my chest and licked my face as
if to save that much of me from the vermin that
seemed likely to get the rest.

292 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

When I could stand it no longer I took a blan-
ket and went out in the rain where I stayed
through the rest of a sodden night. It was clear
in the morning and I explained to my host that
I had become so accustomed to sleeping out of
doors that it was sometimes hard to get to sleep
in a house. He said:

"I was afraid that the bugs were bothering
you. We do have a few and they trouble some
folks until they get used to them."

The horizon was dotted with buffalo in the
morning and there were groups of them grazing
within four hundred yards. My blood tingled
with the memory of the Comanches, the buffa-
loes, and the chase on another prairie only a few
short weeks before and I exclaimed almost in-
voluntarily :

* 'Wouldn't I like to be on a pony chasing those
fellows !"

"You can be there as soon as you are ready,"
said Walker.

"But I can't ride a stage horse."

"I can," said he, "and I've got the sweetest

BUFFALO AND DUCK SHOOTING 293

little mare for you that ever stood on four legs.
Her gait is like a cradle and she would rather
run buffalo than eat."

The mare was all he had pictured her and I
had a glorious gallop, but she didn't put me
beside the quarry so neatly as the pony that an
Indian had trained. My shots were fired from
five yards instead of from one and though I
brought the buffalo to the ground I emptied my
revolver in doing it. Walker killed his buffalo
but it was in spite of the horse he rode instead of
by its aid. For the animal was slow and so
fractious when near the game that Walker slid
from its back and fired his rifle from the ground.

When we got back to the cabin we found a
band of Osages squatted outside and with them
was Clemah, the chief of the tribe. Clemah car-
ried a rifle, as did some others of his band, but
most of them were armed with bows and arrows
for hunting. The chief spoke English and
talked with freedom and intelligence and when I
asked him to contribute to my collection of ar-
rows he got a handful from his followers and

294 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

offered them to me. I only wanted two which I
took and then I showed him what I already had
and asked if he knew where they came from.
He half-smiled at the question.

"Poca Nahbo?" (Painted Feather) I asked as
I showed him an arrow with a broad, short head.

"Cheyenne," he replied, ignoring my attempt
at the Indian name, then touching an arrow with
a long, slim head, said, ' 'Arapahoe," and in quick
succession of three others that to me looked much
alike, said : "Comanche (Snake) , Kiowa (Foolish
People), Apache (Whetstone)," and then shak-
ing his head as he picked up another said, "War
arrow." The head of this arrow which was like
the blade of a knife was set at right angles to the
notch which was made for the string. As the
bow was held vertically when the arrow was dis-
charged the blade-like head was in position to
pass between a man's ribs which lie horizon-
tally as he stands, while the hunting arrow with
its blade running parallel to notch and bow is in
position to kill buffalo or deer whose ribs stand
vertically as they run.

BUFFALO AND DUCK SHOOTING 295

Skeleton Creek abounded in game. Prairie
chickens were plentiful on the prairie, bands of
antelope could be found within ten minutes' ride,
ducks and geese were constantly flying past and
frequently stopping at the creek, while I saw a
number of swans and killed one while there.
There was no end to the sport I was having and
one more day was left before the stage I pro-
posed to take was due when Walker asked if I
would keep the station and let him go away to
visit a friend at the next station. He said he
would be back the next dav and all I would
have to do would be to feed and water the stage
horses. Of course I agreed at once to his sug-
gestion and then asked:

"How about the Indians?"

"The Osages may come but you know them
and there may be some Cheyennes but they won't
bother you."

"But suppose other Indians come and act
ugly?"

"Send them away, tell them to clear out, make
this sign to them."

296 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

a O

Suppose they won't go?"
"They will go fast enough when you take up
your rifle and show them that you mean busi-

ness."

I understood this as mere pleasantry and the
only Indians who came were Cheyemies who
were friendly but showed ignorance of the sign
language when I tried to converse with them.
There was nothing to cause apprehension and I
felt none while there. The Indians always
seemed friendly yet about a fortnight later two
teamsters were seized by them near Skeleton
Creek, tied to their wagons, and burned to death.

From Skeleton Creek to my home was to be
an uninterrupted journey by stage and rail, yet
the misfortune of meeting a conductor of my own
name on a train near Atchison lengthened my
itinerary by a day but gave me a quail hunt over
two wonderful dogs, who made it easy for me to
bag two score of the birds.

The straight and narrow path of my journey
was again interrupted when at Bureau, Illinois,
I saw forty dozen of ducks which had come from

BUFFALO AND DUCK SHOOTING 297

Henry on the Illinois River, where Phil Sheri-
dan was shooting. I wanted especially to see the
General and then, too, I wanted the ducks. My
trunk was hustled out of the baggage car while
the train waited and I hastened by wagon to
Henry only to just miss Sheridan. But the
ducks were there and I hunted up a hunter, one
Peterman by name, and we loaded up 150 car-
tridges that night which to the very last one I
used up the next day.

We started at four o'clock in the morning and
I was stationed in a skiff in a great jungle of tall
reeds. I was in a big, submerged island-
meadow, bounded on the east by the Illinois
River and on the west by a slough that separated
us from land. Peterman and his brother in an-
other skiff rowed and sculled among the reeds,
stirring up the birds. I shot and I shot and I
shot, making little forays from time to time to
pick up the dead and capture the wounded game.

Then it chanced that the ducks ceased to come
and I waded out in the knee-deep water to find
others. I had tied my handkerchief to the end

298 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

of an oar which I fixed upright in the skiff to
guide me back if I became in doubt as to my
course. Ducks rose near me or flew over me and
I shot them. With each bird that I shot I
changed my course and finally when I found my-
self burdened with some fifty pounds of them I
thought to return to my skiff. But where was
the skiff? I wandered blindly about. The Illi-
nois River lay to the east of me and the water
deepened as I traveled that way. To the west
was the slough of deep water over bottomless mud
and to swim to and through it among close-grow-
ing reeds, stems of wild rice and bunches of lily
pads, was impossible unless I threw away gun,
game, and possibly clothing. I was hopelessly
lost and growing more confused minute by
minute.

I have often been lost, in the Rockies, in a
Florida swamp, and in a western cornfield while
shooting prairie chickens. From the mountain
you can descend to the valley and follow ravine
or river till you come to one that you know.
Strike west from within a Florida swamp and

BUFFALO AND DUCK SHOOTING 299

you will reach the coast or some river that will
lead you there. A few miles' walk in the line of
the furrows will lead you out of even an Iowa
cornfield. My one resource seemed to he to wait
for the hue and cry and submit to the humiliation
of being located through shoutings and shoot-
ings. As I was about to give up the struggle to
find the skiff I came upon a muskrat mound
some four or five feet in height. From the top
of the mound I saw the handkerchief that floated
above the skiff. I took its bearings with exact-
ness and, with eyes that were glued to the com-
pass I carried, veered neither to right nor to left
until I ran into the skiff.

When the Petermans found me one of them
asked if I had not been away from the skiff, that
he thought he heard me shooting at some distance
from it.

"Yes," I replied, "I got tired of sitting still
and I waded around a bit. I picked up quite a
lot of birds that way."

"I meant to have told vou," said he, :'that it
wouldn't be safe for vou to leave the boat.

300 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

People who don't know these grounds mighty
well are pretty sure to get lost in them."

"Strange how little sense of direction some
folks have," I replied. "Just to think of any-
body getting lost in a place like this."

The duck shooting of that day was the best,
or from my conservationist standpoint of to-day,
the worst, I had had for ten years. The story of
the other occasion may be worth the telling.

I started from New York with a friend, bound
for Good Ground, via the Long Island Railroad,
and a day of wild-fowl shooting. Breech-load-
ing shot guns were novelties then and I carried
a No. 10 pin-fire made by Jeffries of London, a
weapon which later burst in my hands. I re-
member that I loaded my cartridges with four
and one-half drams of powder and one and three
quarter ounces of shot, proportions that seem
queer to-day.

We crossed the East River late in the day,
with half an hour to spare for our train accord-
ing to the published schedule. But the railroad

BUFFALO AND DUCK SHOOTING 301

time table had been changed without notice and
when we reached the station the train had de-
parted. Owing to a very bad cold I could only
talk in a whisper, but I managed to impress the
official in charge, who after protesting that he
hadn't an engine to send out, complied with my
demand and telegraphed to the president of the
road. A message came back:

"Give them a handcar. Charlick."

The official's comment as he showed me the
despatch was:

"You can't stand a ride to Riverhead against
this wind!"

"Just get out that handcar and see!" was my
whispered reply.

Discipline on the Long Island Railroad at that
time, from Oliver Charlick down, was on a go-as-
you-please basis and the handcar men discussed
the president's orders with the official for fifteen
minutes. The last remark of one of the men
was :

302 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

"S'pose the fellers is dead when we get to
Yaphank, shall we keep on and deliver 'em at
Kiverhead?"

"Get them there, dead or alive, I don't care
which!" and we started.

The wind was from the northeast, blowing a
gale, and in half an hour we were fighting our
way through a blinding snowstorm. Often we
got off and clinging to the car ran behind it, to
keep from freezing. Soon it became so dark
that we could no longer run behind the car for
fear of breaking our legs in a cattle guard. We
changed places with the men every few minutes
or took hold and worked with them. The wind
came in fierce gusts that at times almost stopped
the car, and the men urged us to give up trying
to reach Kiverhead, saying it was impossible to
make it against the gale.

I would have turned back, but for my memory
of the official's sneer when I refused to take his
advice. All through that horrible night we
struggled with the wind, the cold, and the ex-
hausting labor. It was day when we reached

BUFFALO AND DUCK SHOOTING 303

Yaphank and the men insisted on stopping to

rest, but I told them it would be at the cost of
the fee I had promised them for the trip. I
knew that if I got off that handcar the day would
be lost for I could not have got on it again.
During the hours remaining before Riverhead
was reached, I was of little use in the car. The
cold was in my bones, I shivered as with an ague
and was so choked with my cold that I could
scarcely breathe.

At Riverhead we found a man with a team who
took us to Foster's at Good Ground where we
arrived after noon. I was nearly in a state of
collapse when Will Foster gave me a nightcap
and put me to bed, promising to call me in time
for some early morning shooting the next day.
In what seemed but a few minutes he awakened
me, and, with the toothache in every muscle, my
head splitting, and my cold worse I struggled
into my clothes.

Two hours later, when the day broke, three of
us were sitting in a blind on the shore of the bay
beside a bunch of decoys, while nearby was

304 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

anchored a wing-tipped wild goose. As the
light increased we could make out passing flocks
of duck and brant. A flock of redheads turned
in the air and swooped down on the decoys.

'Wait till they light," said Foster, and we
waited.

"Now!" he exclaimed after the birds had set-
tled down, and we raked them on the water with
our right barrels and soaked them with the left
as they rose. A few minutes later a flock of
brant swept toward the decoys, but caught sight
of us as they were about to light. As they turned
away we cut loose with our guns and three brant
dropped out of the flock. I don't know who
killed them, but I do know who didn't for I shot
a decoy with my first barrel and fired my second
so long after the birds were out of range that
Foster remarked:

"Must think you're shootin' a rifle!"

I was ashamed enough at the time, but was
made happy a few minutes later when a single
bluebill swept past me, swift as a swallow, and
I cut him down.

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BUFFALO AND DUCK SHOOTING 305

"Good shot!" exclaimed Foster as the bird
sailed with stiffened wings, straight as a grouse
that is shot through the heart, striking the water
more than a hundred yards from us. Ducks and
brant now came fast, singly, in little bunches,
and in flocks. Often my gun was hot to the
touch, while the water was covered with our vic-
tims. From time to time Foster waded out, on
retriever duty, as far as his long rubber boots
would permit.

It was late when there came from the wing-
tipped wild goose loud cries of "Honk! Honk!"
and from Foster the call, "Lie low! Lie low!"

Far away in the sky I could see a great white
harrow. Nearer and nearer it came, until it
seemed to fill the air, while our decoy goose con-
tinued its cry. Then the leader of the army of
geese, curving downward and to one side, came
straight toward us. The whole surrounding at-
mosphere was filled with geese and I feared being
smashed and smothered by the mass of them. I
was lifting my gun in self defence when I was
checked by Foster's, — "Not yet! Not yet!"

306 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

A moment later there was a splashing and
crashing in the water and the whole bay near us
was covered with wild geese. At Foster's cry
of "Now!" we gave them our first barrels, fol-
lowed by the second before they were fairly out of
the water. In their confusion the geese were
slow about getting away and the six shots from
our reloaded weapons must have nearly doubled
the count of our victims. It rained geese for a
time and when it ceased the water was covered
with their bodies, and crippled geese gyrated in
the air and fluttered away over the surface of the
bay.

The shooting for the day was over, the
boat was brought up, and dead and dying birds
were collected. We counted the geese and I
would like to state the number of the slain, but
all this happened so long ago that I fear the
count may have grown in my memory. My best
recollection gives figures that so strain my own
credulitv that I forbear to name them.

On my way from the blind on the bay to the
house of Foster, near Shinnecock Light, I was

BUFFALO AND DUCK SHOOTING 307

seized with symptoms of starvation. Happily
dinner was ready when we entered the house, ex-
cepting for the redhead ducks which we brought
with us. Five minutes on the coals put these in
order and the repast began.

I have since eaten buffalo hump, al fresco,
with Comanches, beaver tail with Shoshones,
musquash stew with Chippewas, moose-meat with
O jib ways, broiled pony with Navajos, roasted
rattlesnake with a Seminole, elk head baked in
the ground by a Menominee; the choicest game
of field, forest, and stream, lake and mountain,
all with the outdoor hunger sauce; but when
memory is called upon to name the choicest meal,
the most soul-and-body-satisfying feast of my
life, it brings to me the vision of that lightly
broiled red-head duck which I devoured to the
last clinging filament of flesh on its bones.

When I rose from that table the crudest cold
of my life had been frozen or feasted out of my
body.

It was years before I visited Good Ground
again and by a strange coincidence a change in

308 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

the time table once more caused me to miss the
train, but times were different with me then and
it was with confidence that I told the official
to wire the president that I wanted an engine to
take me to Riverhead.

"It won't be any use, but I'll send the mes-
sage," said he. His comment when the reply
came, "Give him a special and anything else he
wants. Charlick," was to this effect, "You
must have a pull with the old man."

There was a reason which the official didn't
know. At that time I was running a line up
Long Island Sound which stopped at Sag Har-
bor, the eastern terminus of the Long Island
Railroad, and Charlick was then negotiating
with me to put on a steamer which should give
him a Boston connection.

CHAPTER XVI

PHYSICS AND PHILOSOPHY

Those wonderful Western experiences put
new life into me. I came back to poverty and
poverty can never be pleasant, but I had cour-
age to face it. I marshalled my assets and
swapped them off for my obligations, leaving
only my cherished library and furniture enough
for a home in the country. I hoped to realize
something from lightly encumbered properties,
but the panic of 1873 left no such equities.
Houses that cost tens of thousands to build were
offered at one-tenth of that cost. My prospec-
tive income was represented by zero, but I knew
a town in Massachusetts where I could almost
live upon that and thither I moved my family.
I don't like to dwell upon the fact that I re-
mained behind for some days from literal lack
of money for traveling expenses.

309

310 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

It was a new era in my life and presaged a
change of thought and action. I had need to
pray "Give us this day our daily bread" for I
was far from being sure of it. I had no means
and no prospects and the future was dark, but I
have never been happier in my life. I under-
stood how Sindbad felt after he had shaken off
the Old Man of the Sea and smashed his head.
I no longer watched the clock to see if it was 1
or 2.15 or 3 p. m. and I didn't dread to open my
mail, nor care if money was one per cent a minute.

I reveled in my books and often I read all
night, reviewing and advancing in the studies I
loved, mathematics and mechanics, chemistry
and physics. Bits of money drifted in, from un-
expected, often forgotten, sources. I had never
refused to forgive an indebtedness and from the
hundreds of thousands of dollars thus treated
some trifling sums drifted back, but always from
the least well to do. Wealthy friends became
shy while others whose manifestations of regard
had been most unobtrusive displayed an affec-
tion that was touching.

PHYSICS AND PHILOSOPHY 311

One such incident is worth reciting. Before
I was fairly settled in my new home an old
friend from New York dropped in most unex-
pectedly. His conversation was casual and his
stay short, for he had to take the next train for
home, but as he was leaving he awkwardly thrust
into my hands a big roll of currency which rep-
resented all the savings he could lay his hands
upon. As he asked me to accept it as a favor to
himself there were tears in his voice and eyes,
and I am sure there were the same in mine as
I tried to explain how impossible it was for me
to accept anything but the affection that went
with the proffered gift. He owed me nothing,
our relations had been of pure friendship, and if
favors had been footed up a large balance would
have stood to his credit. Others remember
John Swinton as the brilliant journalist, long on
the editorial staff of the New York Times, later
managing editor of the Sun, and yet later when
driven by his love for humanity into Socialist
ranks he ran his own, John Swinton s Paper, but
I think of him as he left that little town, making

312 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

a final effort to force upon his friend his own
hard earnings.

Shelburne Falls was a manufacturing town,
chiefly of cutlery, locks, and the like, and as one
of the factories was owned by a friend of mine
I had the run of the shop. It was a wonderful
school of mechanics and I studied and practiced
processes from pattern and foundrj^ work to the
delicate fitting of fine lock machinery. When
the big wheel started in the morning I was on
hand and when it stopped at night I reluctantly
turned away from the lathe or planer which I
chanced to be using. Often the wheel turned
and the shafting ran half an hour extra for me
while some workman lost that much time, but it
was all for love, for even if I could have spared
tips for the service those independent New Eng-
enders would have resented their tender. Al-
ways some eye of intelligence was on me ready
to bring skilled assistance when needed.

When near the beginning of my work I at-
tempted to rough out a piece of wood on a power
lathe and the loosely held gouge was snatched

PHYSICS AND PHILOSOPHY 313

from my hand and sent flying through a window,
just missing a workman's head, instead of up-
braiding me the man came to my aid and for ten
minutes gave me a series of practical lessons that
would serve me to-day. He told me why the
gouge had caught in the wood, he pushed the
slide rest closer to the work and making me
lower the hand that held the tool said: "Now
hold it firmly and don't be afraid," and I fol-
lowed his instructions while the shavings flew
until I had a fairly true cylinder before
me.

I rejoiced that I had mastered the theory of
turning by hand and needed only a little prac-
tice to become an adept, but another lesson was
awaiting me. My instructor had just put a
razor edge on a turning chisel and taking his
place at the lathe swept the tool the length of
the work from which streamed an almost un-
broken shaving while the perfect cylinder of
wood that was left could scarcely have been im-
proved by polishing. He gave me the chisel
with careful instructions how to use it and the

314 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

result was so creditable that I was complacent
over my conquest of another tool.

But the workman warned me, "If ever you let
the upper corner of that chisel touch the wood
you'll have trouble." "I won't forget," said I.
"You'd forget in five minutes if I didn't give
you a lesson. Now hold the chisel tight and
let the corner touch the work," and I did as he
said. The chisel didn't get away but it jarred
my arm to the shoulder as it tore a great gash
in the work which broke loose from the chuck
and was sent flying across the room. "That
was the only way to make you remember it, and
you may need another lesson yet," was the work-
man's comment. I was a fairly apt pupil and
got out of the kindergarten department early,
but even to the last I received from the workmen
many practical solutions of problems that wor-
ried me. I will give a single and simple example
of this.

I was turning a cylinder in an engine lathe
from bronze of a composition with which I was
experimenting. The broad-nosed tool with

PHYSICS AND PHILOSOPHY 315

which I was seeking to finish it chattered so that
the surface of the cylinder was as smooth as a
nutmeg grater. I reformed and retempered the
tool, changing its cutting angle several times and
always finishing it with an oilstone to a perfect
edge, but it continued to chatter. As I held it
in my hand wondering what to do next the fore-
man took it from me and drawing an oilstone
across the edge that I had produced with such
care rounded it off until it was as dull as my wits
appeared to me a minute later.

"Now you've fixed it so it wouldn't cut
cheese," said I. "Try it," said he, and when
I had fixed it in the tool post and thrown on the
belt it slowly traveled the length of that cylin-
der without a chatter, leaving a perfectly mirror-
like surface behind it.

Of course these details sound trivial, like the
jackstraws of children, but they were part of
my life and as interesting as Wall Street had
been. Friends wondered how I managed to kill
time in so slow a place, while I mourned each de-
parting day, lamenting that it didn't contain

316 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

forty-eight hours. I economized on sleep,
working late at night in the little laboratory
which I had fitted up where I gave lectures on
chemistry to a class from some nearby school.
I made this exciting and informative if not in-
teresting to the scholars, for I had harmless hy-
drogen pistols scattered about and if a too amor-
ous youth preferred whispering to a girl to
absorbing the wisdom which I was disseminat-
ing, the touch of a button exploded a bomb un-
der his chair, and the retribution of an electric
shock often followed the forbidden handling of
apparatus.

At the shop I made mechanical, physical and
chemical apparatus to assist or illustrate my
study of those sciences. The work varied from
making a small steam engine to a polariscope,
from constructing an electrical engine that when
power was applied would develop electricity, or
conversely would convert the current of a battery
into available power, to making a RuhmkorfT
coil with twelve miles of secondary wire.

The employees were interested in all my work,

PHYSICS AND PHILOSOPHY 317

but that coil must have lowered the efficiency
of the shop by several per cent. The wire for
the secondary coil was about as small as a hair
and insulated with fine silk thread. To wind it
with perfect smoothness on the coil cylinder I
fixed the latter between the centers of a screw-
cutting lathe and fed to it the wire through a
guide attached to the tool post, having adjusted
the lathe as if to cut one hundred threads to the
inch. After starting the lathe my hand never
left the pulley shifter nor my eye the wire until
a full layer had been wound, excepting when the
overriding of the wire compelled me to turn
back. The insulated wire was then as even as the
thread on a spool of silk and after being painted
with a rubber solution, wound with gutta percha
tissue and coated with shellac the feed was re-
versed and the winding of the second layer pro-
ceeded, this time from left to right if the first
had been the other wav.

But after each winding and before its insula-
tion it was imperative to test the conductivity of
the coil since a single break in the wire, which

318 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

the insulation might conceal, if not repaired be-
fore another layer went on, would spell ruin to
the coil. It was my method of testing for these
breaks which provided perennial excitement in
the shop. I interposed a small battery in the
primary coil and attached a coarse file to one of
the poles. Then when I drew the wire of the
other pole lengthwise of that file I caused a
rapid making and breaking of the circuit. The
average boy of the present day would smile at
the thought of getting a shock through a pri-
mary coil of two hundred feet of big wire at-
tached to a small battery, but that same boy
would shake his sophisticated head if you sug-
gested his touching the tiny wires of the second-
ary coil, even though he knew no battery was in
the circuit.

When I had wound the first layer I attached
the terminals of the coil to pieces of metal which
I asked the workman nearest me to hold. As
I drew the wire across the file I asked if he felt
anything and he remarked that he did. As an-
other layer was wound I tried him again until

PHYSICS AND PHILOSOPHY 319

he became too shy to take the metals from me
but he proposed to provide a substitute which he
did. As the work progressed it became more
and more difficult to find subjects, until finally
after every floor of the factory had been ex-
hausted a man was found in the wheel pit who
hadn't heard of the game. When he was
brought in there was nothing doing on the floor
though every man seemed to be busy, but all had
a spare eye for the experiment. When I drew
the wire across the file the man fell to the floor
and until his recovery a moment later I felt as
Cain should have felt after smiting his brother
Abel.

It was not all scientific study that held me to
the place. Art, literature, and philosophy were
there in a single family whose presence had done
much to attract us to that particular town and
there were Sundays of mountain climbing, for-
est wandering, geologizing, and botanizing, for
"The groves were God's first temples," as our
gentle leader was fond of quoting. We took to
the fields and the forests on the slightest provo-

320 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

cation, from the beckoning of wild flowers and
fruit, the temptation of a mountain trout brook
and the mandate of opening chestnut burrs to
the fall of a meteorite, the search for which oc-
cupied a full day. I carried the bag for speci-
mens on our geological outings and I am sure
our collection made up in avoirdupois whatever
it may have lacked in rarity.

I recall the humorous smile of our chief as
after having struggled a few steps with a boul-
der she laid it on the bag that I was to tote, with
the remark, "There, thank heaven that's home!"
For once the joke was on her. A friend who
knew of her interest in the subject sent her a
geological specimen which was beautiful but not
rare, with the comment:

"If it were not like offering you a cobble stone
or a brick I would ask you to add this to your
collection."

On the following day she came home from her
usual morning walk down to the little village, in
much excitement, exclaiming, "Just look at this
specimen that Dr. Severance gave me, and

We were friends of the creatures of the wild, and Tom, our lynx, was

wild all right.

Page 455

PHYSICS AND PHILOSOPHY 321

would you believe it, he said as he gave it that
he supposed it was like offering me a cobble
stone or a brick, but he thought I might like it
for my collection. There must be some psycho-
logical reason for the similarity of expressions.
It is beyond ordinary coincidence." We all
shook our heads with gravity befitting the sit-
uation and assured her we were quite of her
view.

When the circle assembled the next evening she
addressed herself to me :

"The mystery of that coincidence, which I
thought affected all of you strangely last evening
lias deepened. When I was in the village I deliv-
ered that note of yours to our druggist who has
never before been known to smile. He showed
me the note in which you asked him to fill two
small vials with homeopathic pills and to label one
mix vomica and the other belladonna. He asked
what I supposed you meant and when I replied
that I had never known you to mean anything by
what you said, he reached under his counter and
brought out this rock, saying,

m% WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

a i~

'If it were not like offering you a cobblestone
or a brick, Mrs. Yale — '

a c\

That will do,' said I, interrupting, 'I know
the rest of it.'

"Then I went to the butcher and said, —

a <.-

'How is your liver to-day?' or it might have
been chops, but before he could answer my in-
quiry he had to get those cobblestones and bricks
off his mind. I couldn't buy a paper of pins
without having a cobblestone thrown in and every
friend I have in town was waiting for me with a
brick."

A friend of Emerson and of other leaders of
thought of her day, she created an atmosphere
about her family and friends that was infinitely
soothing to battered nerves and made the shout-
ings of the Exchange and the jargon of Wall
Street sound like voices from the pit. And yet I
was going back. Kipling may write of the call
of the East, London of the call of the wild, but
both are mere sentimental suggestions compared
to the Call of the Street.

CHAPTER XVII

THE CALL OF THE STREET

Leaving my family in Shelburne Falls, I
opened an office in Wall Street and began again
in the smallest way. Getting into the running
was slow work and I had lost much of my love for
the game. I missed the shop, the laboratory, and
my library. Business was distressingly slow and
the novel sensation of time to spare sent me back
to my friends in Park Row. Many and many an
evening I spent in the editorial room of a great
journal, just a fly on the wheel of the mighty
machine, but feeling that I was a part of its
throbbing, palpitating life. Always my welcome
was cordial and I was ingeniously and ingenu-
ously made to feel at home and of service by refer-
ence to me of questions of financial policy.

At this time a new acquaintance added much
to the spice of my life. There was boarding at

323

324 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

the same house as I a young man with his wife
and little child. He was correspondent for a
San Francisco paper and the most versatile man
intellectually I have ever met. His disregard of
money was phenomenal. He had squandered
two moderate fortunes and was often at a loss for
money to pay for his baby's milk. Aside from
his precarious pay as correspondent he had a tiny
income, pa}rable quarterly.

On one occasion, after receiving his quarterly
check, something like twenty-five dollars, he
called at the office and invited me out to dine. I
tried to escape for I felt what was coming, but
I could no more do so than I could avert what
followed, excepting at the cost of our friendship.
He was a perfect host and he made an intellectual
dream of that dinner. Yet I sat through it in
distress for he expended the check for which his
family and himself were suffering, down to the
last dollar or two and these he gave to the waiter.

A few days after the dinner, on the hottest
Sunday of the year his wife handed me a manu-
script, saying:

THE CALL OF THE STREET 325

"Don't you think Mayo can do better with this
than to send it to San Francisco?"

I lay down on a lounge by the window, manu-
script in hand, expecting to fall asleep, for I
was very drowsy, but I didn't, and a minute or
two later I was sitting up and taking notice.
With increasing delight I read and reread the
paper and then wrote to Charles A. Dana a letter
that must have made him laugh at my enthusiasm.
A briefer note of introduction was given my
friend to present with his manuscript and from
that day to the hour of his death, Mayo W.
Hazletine was a feature of the Sun. As a re-
viewer and editorial writer his pay became unique
and later, much later, from another publication
he received an annual salary in addition to that
paid him by the Sun, of ten thousand dollars for
his unsigned work.

Among my newspaper friends was Henry J.
Macdonald, an uncle of Rudyard Kipling and
the financial editor of the World. We took our
simple mid-day lunch together in the basement of
a New Street restaurant, and we ought to have

326 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

paid rent for often we occupied our table for
hours. It required a serious call from the office
to withdraw me from the fascinations of his
humorous characterizations of the men most in
the lime-light of the street and his caustic com-
ments on the ethics of his own profession as
handed down to him from the publication office.
He was a dreamer of dreams and in one of our
symposiums which lasted until going-home time
he began with the hopes and history of ancient
alchemists, which I supplemented as well as I
could with the accomplishments of modern chem-
ists in analogous lines and between us we worked
out a theory that later sent me off on a tangent of
chemical experiments from which I only with-
drew after feeling the suction of the whirlpool
that has drawn to destruction all followers of the
phantom of the philosopher's stone in any of its
protean forms.

The crystallization of carbon was our thought,
although our theory was not sustained by the con-
ditions surrounding the diamond mines of the
world. Our conclusion was that in marsh gas we

THE CALL OF THE STREET 327

had carbon in one of its simplest and least stable
combinations, roughly one equivalent of hydro-
gen to three of carbon, that if to a measured
quantity of the gas the chlorine equivalent of its
hydrogen content were presented under proper
conditions of isolation and pressure the chlorine
and hydrogen would combine, leaving the carbon
in condition to crystallize.

I had brought my family back to Elizabeth
and fitted up a working laboratory and a small
machine shop in my house. My office hours were
so few that I had much time for experimentation
and I started in to work out our crystallization
of carbon theory. The gases were made, meas-
ured, and mixed in proper proportions and I
forced them into soda water bottles at increasing
pressures until for the sake of safety I enclosed
the bottles in wire cages. Some were kept in
darkness and others exposed to sunshine and I
watched the growth of one diamond with in-
tensest interest until I discovered that instead of
a diamond it was only a slight defect in the bottle.

I got a more powerful pump and stronger

328 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

bottles and tried a number of devices for the
better sealing of them. My dreams were of
diamonds and I became secretive about my work
for I think my subconscious self was warning me
that I was losing my wits and wasting my money
in pursuit of a will-o'-the-wisp. It was a hard
struggle to overcome my hallucination, but in a
moment of sanity I began smashing everything
connected with the experiment and thereafter
avoided the painful subject.

About this time it happened that Generals
Corse and Barnum, with George Alfred Town-
send, perhaps the best known of our great war
correspondents, were spending the night with me.
It was an occasion never-to-be-forgotten by me.
Townsend's capacious memory, which never al-
lowed a fact to escape, was drawn upon to coax
from Barnum the story of the Battle of Malvern
Hill, the last of the great Seven Days' Fight, up
to the time when he was carried from the field.
Corse's reminiscences, especially of the Battle
Above the Clouds were thrilling. Here it was
that he was so nearly surrounded that when an

THE CALL OF THE STREET 329

officer was shot by his side and he ordered a
soldier to take him to the rear the reply came :

"Good God, General, there is no rear!"

He told of the famous signal from Sherman:

"Hold the fort!" and of his reply.

The former has been made part of an evangel-
istic hymn, "Hold the fort for I am coming!"
but the latter has never received that distinction.
As Corse quoted it to me it was: —

"I'm shot, but I can whip hell out of Johnny
Hood!"

It was the thirteenth of April, 1875, the anni-
versary of the fall of Sumter, the beginning of
the Civil War, and it was proposed that we cele-
brate by driving the next morning to Menlo Park
and interviewing Thomas A. Edison, which we
did.

The visit to Menlo Park was a great pleasure
to us and I am sure Mr. Edison enjoyed it as
well for as telegraph operator he had received
many a message relating to both the Generals
and he told Townsend that he had taken his stuff
by the hour many a time. He talked of his work

330 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

and showed us the phonograph he was making,
shouting into the mouthpiece of the machine, —
"Mary had a little lamb," or something from
Marco Bozzaris, while he turned the crank. I
still have a lot of the tinfoil on which he regis-
tered his talk that day.

It was the cylinder machine at which he was
working, but he talked of a disc machine he was
going to make of which the record of Shakes-
peare's works could be carried in the pocket.

My work in my shop was cut out for a month
to come and at last the phonograph I made
would talk. Of course there was nothing orig-
inal about it or that any fair machinist could not
have made, but it was nothing less than a miracle
to me when it first gave back my words.

There was no suggestion of business success in
my life at this time and living was on a most
economical scale, but never in my life was I richer
in friends. All the pure gold of the friendship
of my prosperous days stayed by me and only the
dross was swept away. I wTas hand in glove with
the journalistic crowd and they were a fascinat-

THE CALL OF THE STREET 331

ing lot, many of them given to dropping in upon
me for an evening, with delightful unexpected-
ness. So, too, with many of the acquaintances I
had made in Washington.

Most interesting of these was Albert Brisbane,
to whom I was introduced by Horace Greeley,
who told me that he had more brains than the rest
of Washington taken together. Brisbane had
been the personal friend of Goethe and Heine,
was one of the Brook Farm colony and the great
American Fourrierite who paid the Tribune a
big sum for publishing writings little more rad-
ical than those for which his son receives a
princely salary. He was always riding a hobby
and could usually charm me into having faith in
it.

The best story-teller of those who favored me
with their visits was Proctor Knott. There was
no more exquisite humor in any part of his
famous Duluth speech than in the account he
gave me of the way in which he got a chance to
deliver it. His stories of his experiences when
riding on circuit were exhaustless and inimitable.

332 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

D. R. Locke, whose writings as Petroleum V.
Nasby were recognized by Lincoln as being of
great service to the Union cause, was a conversa-
tionalist of rare humor and when he was with us
we seldom retired before 2 a. m.

General Grant used to visit in Elizabeth and on
such occasions I was apt to have a half hour call
from him. There was little flow of conversation
then, merely a quiet smoke in the library and a
desultory chat. Once he asked me some ques-
tions about Black Friday in a way that showed
that he hadn't forgotten the attempt of the Erie
Gang, Eisk and Gould, to make a cat's-paw of
him.

Business gradually increased and I took in as
partner a son-in-law of General John H. Deve-
reux, then president of the Cleveland, Columbus,
Cincinnati and Indianapolis R. R. Later I was
able to be of service to this road to our mutual
advantage. Its president came to New York
with a lot of bonds of the road on which to bor-
row money of their agent, the United States
Trust Company, or in default of getting the cash

THE CALL OF THE STREET 333

to put the road in the hands of a receiver. The
Trust Company refused to lend the money, but
I took enough of the bonds to avert the receiver-
ship. General Devereux was a railroad man
from the ground up and his services as such to the
Union during the Civil War were great, but
when in behalf of a great road, driven by an ap-
parent necessity, he made that world-famous re-
bate contract with Rockefeller, he opened the
box of Pandora and laid up a store of remorse
that haunted him to his dying day.

In a year or so as profits permitted I bought
a house in 49th Street, New York, to which I
put up a three story addition, fitting out the first
floor as a machine shop, with a twelve horse
power engine, and the second as a chemical lab-
oratory. Thereafter if matters were dull in the
street there was always something to be done in
the shop and often my engine ran half the night,
while if any worry interfered with my sleep it
was but a step from my room to the laboratory
which trouble never invaded. Among the thou-
sands of chemical experiments which I recorded

334 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

were a number with uranium and I am chagrined
to-day at the thought that radium must have pre-
sented itself to my blind side.

In the machine shop I made physical appara-
tus and models of many kinds, utilizing the fall
of water from attic to basement for the construc-
tion of an air pump and an air blast, both con-
tinuous and responding to the opening of a water
valve.

Sometimes I thought I invented things, but
after the models had been made I usually found
that they had either been invented already or
were not worth inventing. My neglect of social
duties was forgiven by my friends — after they
had looked at my hands — but there wasn't one,
even of the most Vere de Vere caste, who didn't
prefer shop or laboratory, to a conventional par-
lor.

A relative was made a partner and then an-
other, and a branch office established in Newark
with telephonic connection, perhaps the first
long distance telephone, though of only ten miles,
for commercial use. Another branch was

THE CALL OF THE STREET 335

opened in Fifth Avenue and orders poured in.
Transactions increased until they were many
thousand shares a day and yet the business was
precarious. Margins were smaller in those days
and brokers were more imprudent, or less hard-
hearted, according to one's angle of view, and
while profits rolled up, bad debts accumulated,
through carrying customers beyond their mar-
gins, debts that footed up several hundred thou-
sand dollars in a few years. There were other
losses, fairly ascribable to the "easy come, easy
go" rule that seems to obtain in money matters.
To use a word that I dislike, I undertook to
"finance" the building of the Washington City
and Point Lookout Railroad. S. T. Suit, an old
friend of mine, was the enthusiastic projector of
the line, but it chanced that one Smoot, a rival of
Suit, had a similar project. While we were
grading and bridging and laying ties toward the
Point Lookout end of the Washington City and
Point Lookout road, Smoot was doing the same
near the Washington end of the Southern Mary-
land. Later the rival roads were laying parallel

336 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

tracks within a mile of each other. After a hun-
dred thousand dollars or thereabout had slipped
away it seemed time for an issue of bonds to be
made in furtherance of the financing plan.

Money ran short with our rival while work on
our line proceeded merrily and when we offered
our issue of bonds to English capitalists the
engineers they sent over to examine the property
and consider its prospects reported favorably.
Our offer was accepted and the bonds shipped
to our agent in London. Before they could be
delivered the rumor was published that the South-
ern Maryland had obtained a large loan abroad
and our frightened English friends backed out.

Then began a series of negotiations for a rail-
road alliance the most important of which was
with Robert Garrett in behalf of the Baltimore
and Ohio with which we already had a leasehold
interest. The plans were perfected up to laying
them before John W. Garrett, the father of Rob-
ert and the President of the Baltimore and Ohio,
who promptly knocked them endwise. We
learned later that this was his fatherly custom,

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THE CALL OF THE STREET 337

and after many deals with the B. & O. Telegraph
Company, on behalf of the Bankers and Mer-
chants Telegraph Company it became a com-
monplace with the latter that an agreement with
the Superintendent of the former company was
kept until Robert Garrett heard of it and that a
contract with Robert held until John W. got a
chance to kick it over. Thereafter I advanced
money slowly to the railroad and work was cut
down and finally stopped. There were no con-
flicting interests of ownership to hire lawyers to
get receivers and assess stockholders for their
benefit under the guise of reorganization.
When, through my becoming helpless, the road
became hopeless, in easy-going Southern fashion
the rails were picked up and the piles of ties
carted away for the building of the Washington
and Chesapeake R. R.

In the last of the seventies my Wall Street
business was just confining enough to keep me
from any but short excursions into the wilds. A
few days off for ducks or quail, partridges or rail,
was all I could compass and keeping my armory

338 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

in good order was becoming a task. There was
some interest in rifle shooting at this time and a
good many matches came off at Creedmoor
where a rifle range had been established in 1871.
Chief among the promoters of this enterprise
were William C. Church and George W. Win-
gate, I had been one of the original trustees to
hold the property and occasionally took part in a
match on the grounds.

On one occasion I entered the competition for
three prizes, one of which was offered by the
Stock Exchange Rifle Club. The three prizes
went home with me that night together with the
conviction that I was the original Leatherstock-
ing. Pride like mine seldom long precedes a
fall and mine came with the next competition.
When it came my turn to fire I was looked upon
with interest and I especially enjoyed hearing
the President of our National Rifle Association
say to some ladies who were with him, "Now you
will see some shooting!"

My hand was steady, the trigger of the rifle
yielded at that critical fraction of a second when

THE CALL OF THE STREET 339

the sights were aligned on the bull's eye of the
target, and I was sure the white disc of the
marker would settle upon it, giving me five, the
highest count, for my first shot. But the disc
that was shown marked the second space and the
scorer recorded three for my first shot.

"That was just an accident,', said my friend
the President to the ladies with him. 'You'll
see a string of bull's eyes, now."

But what they did see following my next shot
was the black disc for which the scorer recorded
two and thereafter had nothing to enter for after
each of my seven shots that followed, the waving
disc told the spectators that there was nothing
doing. I had a happy half hour of introductions
and listening to conversations that gave kindly
reasons for the accident of my failure or point-
edly ignored the subject.

I don't know whether I felt better or worse
when I found that in loading a lot of cartridges
I had omitted the lubricating disc and the barrel
of my rifle had become leaded to such an extent
that a bullet sent through it would be delivered

340 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

with less accuracy than a brick could be thrown
by hand. Of course I proposed to redeem my
reputation and appeared at a subsequent com-
petition with rifle and cartridges in perfect order.
I had even gone farther and that my nerves
might be at their steadiest I had given up smok-
ing for the week preceding the event. This
caused my downfall, for I was an inveterate
smoker at that time and giving up the habit so
suddenly put my nerves in a condition that
would have been a credit to a victim of St. Vi-
tus' Dance.

At this time the clay pigeon was hardly known
in practice and trap shooting was at live birds.
I am glad that I can only recall shooting in two
matches of this kind. The first was in Long
Branch and happened by chance. I was visiting
a friend who was entered in a match and as he
was not feeling well I took his gun and his place.
That I won the match was a great surprise and
the score was so good that I fancied myself a
second Bogardus.

I soon entered in another event which came off

THE CALL OF THE STREET 34*1

at the Brinton Rifle Range in New Jersey. My
luck was wonderful and I killed ten birds
straight, but one of my competitors did the same.
In shooting off the tie he missed his bird and the
match was thought to be mine. When the trap
was sprung the pigeon flew straight as an arrow
toward me. I made a clean miss with my first
barrel, but the bird came on swift as a swallow
for my face. Again I missed, but as the pigeon
was passing me shoulder high like a well deliv-
ered baseball I swung for it with my gun and
knocked it thirty feet, dead. When I looked
around for the applause I thought I had earned
I saw members of the club lying on the ground
yelling with delight. Of course I claimed the
bird which I had killed fairly with my gun, hav-
ing violated no rule which we could find. The
decision was against me and my partizans
claimed my opponent must have had a pull with
the umpire, the justice of which the reader can
judge. My opponent killed his next bird while I
missed two easy shots at mine and the match, the
last of its kind I ever shot, was lost to me.

CHAPTER XVIII

RISE AND FALL OF THE BANKERS AND MER-
CHANTS

About the time one becomes convinced that he
is running his own affairs, Fate is apt to step in
and show him that he is merely a pawn in the
game. I had made up my mind to a quiet life,
with my studies, my books, my hunting excur-
sions, and just enough of Wall Street to take
care of my family, when an insignificant move
determined the direction of my energies for
vears.

I was asked by members of the Stock Ex-
change who had Philadelphia partners to sub-
scribe to a company formed to build a telegraph
line between Philadelphia and New York with
a view to getting quick service between the Stock
Exchanges of the two cities. The project wras
promoted by arbitrage dealers between the two

342

BANKERS AND MERCHANTS 343

markets and they asked each subscriber to take
twenty-five shares of the stock of the Bankers
and Merchants Telegraph Company at par. I
drew my check for $2,500 and gave little thought
to the matter beyond attending meetings of di-
rectors.

In September, 1881, work having progressed
for six months, more capital was required. It
was proposed to issue additional stock to holders
of record at ninety per cent. It was argued that
the promotion of the work was worth ten per
cent and that stockholders were entitled to that
much discount on their new subscriptions. I
was the only one who objected to this watering
of the stock and I insisted that if the promotion
was worth ten per cent then our stock was worth
110 per cent and ought not to be sold below that
price. I had a warm time defending my posi-
tion against the general opinion that it was only
the thought of getting something for nothing
that would bring in the subscriptions we needed.
I predicted that not a stockholder would refuse
to take his proportion and added that I would

3M WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

take it for him if he did. This expression of con-
fidence stuck me with nine lots of stock from
that number of stockholders who refused to sub-
scribe.

On the following December our cable was laid
under the North River, as a piece of it on the
table before me tells, and on January 16, 1882,
we began business between the Exchanges of
New York and Philadelphia with a rush. Role-
son, the crack operator in the country, whose rec-
ord was over fifty words a minute, sat at the Ex-
change in New York, taking messages from up-
lifted fingers, ordering purchases and sales in
Philadelphia, and reporting their execution,
often within the fraction of a minute.

It was arranged to extend our lines to Wash-
ington and on May 12, 1882, it was again pro-
posed that cash be provided by issuing new stock
to shareholders at less than par. Once more I
opposed watering our stock and proposed that
we offer our shareholders 100 per cent of their
holdings in new stock at 120 per cent. This took
away the breath of the board and the meeting

BANKERS AND MERCHANTS 345

was adjourned from Friday until the following
Tuesday. I hoped that the promoters and bene-
ficiaries, the Philadelphians and the arbitragers,
would stand by me in carrying through their own
enterprise.

A Philadelphian wants more than four days
to make up his mind and at the meeting they
were noncommittal and waited until I repeated
my offer to take the stock that others refused
when they agreed that the plan was a good one.
This time the stockholders lay down upon me to
the amount of ninety thousand dollars, and as
some who did subscribe asked me later to buy
their lots I found myself the owner of more than
half the capital stock.

My control of the company became quickly
known and three rivals approached me on three
consecutive days. I refused to deal with Jay
Gould upon any terms. Robert Garrett sat up
with me in my house nearly all of one night try-
ing to persuade me to sell my control to the Bal-
timore and Ohio. I told him I would submit any
bid to my associates, but that it must extend to

346 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

all the shares without preference to any one, but
that wasn't Robert's style. John B. Alley, of
Lynn, was the chief owner of the Postal Tele-
graph and sent his agent, Bartlett, to buy of me
control of the Bankers and Merchants. I re-
fused to make any deal that did not protect my
associates and sent him to the Philadelphian who
was president of the company.

He agreed to sell our stock to the Postal for
100 per cent in cash, 100 per cent in Postal
bonds and 200 per cent in Postal stock and the
directors joined me in confirming his action.
There was a few days' delay by the Postal be-
yond the appointed time for rounding up the
deal and the president of the Bankers and Mer-
chants refused to carry it out and the Philadel-
phians followed his lead without knowing why.
I went to Philadelphia where we held a meeting
and had a monkey and a parrot time. The pres-
ident said he could make a better contract with
the Postal people if we refused to carry out the
old agreement. I insisted that we were in honor
bound to carry out a contract to which all had

BANKERS AND MERCHANTS 347

agreed, and not to stand on a mere technicality
for the sake of squeezing out better terms. I
somewhat intemperately added that if they
didn't carry it out I would.

I deserved all the trouble that came to me, for
not acting at once on my threat which I could
have done in an hour. I had little doubt that all
would come to my view until three days later
when I heard that the president was getting
pledges from stockholders to refuse to carry out
the agreement. I found that owing to the sale
during my absence from my office of a hundred
shares I was a few shares short of control. I
went over to the Exchange and got the pledge
of three stockholders to stand in with me, which
gave me a large majority. Two of the three
came to me later saying that their Philadelphia
associates had made it a personal matter that
they come into the president's pool. I let them
off believing I was safe without them and then
the third man simply broke his pledge without
excuse. The success of the president was
astounding. He had corralled every outstand-

348 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

ing share of stock and persuaded the owners to
deposit them in trust entirely beyond their own
control.

When I got from the Postal people the terms
of their private agreement with the president of
our company it was too late for use. For it had
been promised him that his own bonds should be
redeemed at par and a further cash considera-
tion paid him for making the original agreement,
and it was the refusal of the Postal to pay him a
large additional sum that caused his opposition
to carrying out our agreement.

The position was a queer one. My interest in
the company was equal to that of all the others
combined, but I had no control of my own prop-
erty. Yet, excepting the president, the Phila-
delphians were square, and a proposition to drop
me from the board was promptly vetoed while
several of them later expressed to me their regret
for their hasty action. Everything became har-
monious and my suggestions received the full
consideration to which they were entitled.

BANKERS AND MERCHANTS 349

In December the Bankers and Merchants was
listed on the Stock Exchange and thereafter I
had fun with my colleagues. For I held all the
free stock and could make the price what I
pleased. However tempting the quotation I
dangled before their eyes, they could not avail
of it. Outsiders began to take an interest and
the stock became active while the pool members
chafed and propositions of settlement came my
way. I placed my shares as collateral with con-
servative old institutions which never called their
loans and leaving full bank balances for my busi-
ness took my family to the west coast of Florida
where for three months I hunted and fished, aft-
erwards visiting the Pacific coast.

Overtures were made to me by letter and eight
months after the stock had been pooled to block
the sale I advocated, it was sold to me upon
terms which called for the payment of no cash
whatever.

My campaign which began with the purchase
of the pooled stock in eight months extended the

350 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

lines of the Bankers and Merchants system from
the Great Lakes to the Gulf and from the At-
lantic to west of the Mississippi.

The Southern Telegraph Company was in
financial distress and we bought it, pouring out
money for the extension of its lines throughout
the South. Everywhere the Western Union
fought us. It was especially vicious in Georgia
and we fought our way across the State with
from two to three gangs of men at each working
point, one gang to stay in jail while the others
worked. The Western Union secured strips of
land and arrested our workmen when we at-
tempted to carry our lines across them. Then
another gang was set to work while the first was
being bailed out. The sympathy of the people
was with us for the Western Union had few
friends in the South.

We bought many lesser lines, the Board of
Trade between Chicago and St. Louis, the Pa-
cific Mutual, the Lehigh Valley, and many others.
I bought the West Shore telegraph line of Cal-
vin S. Brice and Samuel Thomas, but before the

BANKERS AND MERCHANTS 351

delivery could be made Robert Garrett made
them a bigger bid and Brice sent the smooth-
tongued Thomas to me to explain what couldn't
be explained. We bought the American Rapid
Telegraph Company whose lines were extensive
but in poor condition and I wish I had back the
million or so that I put into repairs and exten-
sions of that plant of Boston multi-millionaires.
I had looked for aid from that crowd in work
done for our mutual interests, but never did a
penny of help come. I regret especially that in
response to their urgent appeal I sent my per-
sonal check for $125,000 to meet their maturing
coupons, at a time when I could ill spare it.

We pushed the building of lines in many di-
rections, buying single lots of twenty thousand
miles of wire.

We wanted a ticker and we bought the one
now controlled by the New York Stock Ex-
change which afterwards secured it upon sub-
stantially the terms upon which I offered it to
them.

We bought the United States Telephone

352 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

Company, owner of the McDonough telephone,
upon the opinion of distinguished lawyers, one
of whom was Roscoe Conklin, that McDonough
was the inventor of the telephone and entitled
to the patent, his claim having been filed two
years before Bell's. Just one year thereafter we
were beaten in Washington upon a theory of
sound transmission that McDonough afterwards
demonstrated, by a mechanical contrivance as in-
genious as the telephone itself, to be untrue.
Benjamin F. Butler, too, showed me a device of
a client of his which made the theory of the deci-
sion ridiculous.

We also owned the Drawbaugh claim, of
which there appeared in the New York Sun of
November 23, 1913, the following:

"Alexander Graham Bell will go down in his-
tory as the inventor of the telephone and com-
paratively little space will be given to Daniel
Drawbaugh, yet Bell and Drawbaugh filed their
patent papers the same day, and after eight years
of litigation, in which some of the greatest law-

i/t

*c >.

ZiL

BANKERS AND MERCHANTS 353

yers in America were engaged, three Justices of
the Supreme Court of the United States sup-
ported Drawbaugh's claim to priority and four
supported Bell. By the narrow margin of one
vote Bell was made rich and Drawbaugh contin-
ued poor."

Through a decision based upon demonstrated
ignorance, or influence, the Bell Company has
a thousand millions while the McDonough Com-
pany is forgotten.

Our lines were extending in all directions and
the rapidity of the growth of the system was be-
yond precedent. Yet excepting my own capital
and credit, which were embarked without reserve
in the enterprise, it was without financial back-
ing. There was no pool, no other capitalist, and
no thought of exploiting the public. I believed
that on its merits it could command the confi-
dence of the community through providing a
service hitherto unapproached. The great sums
required in construction were provided by my
own borrowings.

354 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

Six months after I came into control of the
company it was on the high road to prosperity.
The demand for lease of wires at profitable rates
was far in excess of our ability to supply it.
Our completed lines were paying well and as
extensions remained in construction account un-
til finished we were able to pay dividends to jus-
tify the increasing prices at which I subscribed
to each new issue of stock. My own business
was prospering, extensions were provided for
in advance, and soon my cash, current securi-
ties, and equities in loans exceeded a million dol-
lars.

Construction was eating up money, millions
must be expended before a safe haven could be
reached, and until then the millions involved in
the enterprise rested upon the life, the health of
one man. Then panics were to be reckoned
with and although I could weather an ordinary
one there were sometimes occasions when money
could not be borrowed upon any security. In a
time like this when loans were called on big bor-
rowers like Gould and Huntington they could

BANKERS AND MERCHANTS 355

ignore the calls, knowing that the loaners dare
not attempt to enforce them and invite the ruin
to themselves and others that would follow the
wiping out of hundreds of millions of values in
bond and stock issues. When under similar cir-
cumstances Chicago banks and capitalists sol-
emnly called Yerkes before them and told him
they could carry him no longer, he challenged
them to do their worst but promised them "merry
hell in the market in the morning" and that he
wouldn't leave many of them solvent.

One little incident got on my nerves. I wTas
chatting with the Chairman of the Finance Com-
mittee of one of the largest insurance companies
in the city, when he told me of large loans they
were making on Gould securities and added sig-
nificantly :

"Gould has made some good turns for me in
his Western Union."

I wTas borrowing a good deal of his company
and I had made no turns for him and didn't pro-
pose to, but it struck me with the force of a physi-
cal blow that if financial trouble came he could

356 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

make a great turn for Gould's Western Union
by calling his company's loans on Bankers and
Merchants.

I thought to reduce the perils of the situation
by continuing construction with bonds and pre-
pared an issue of ten millions. This was a grave
mistake and its result calamitous. For despite
all restrictions in the issue of the bonds to con-
tractors and others, they found their way in times
of stress to a market not prepared to digest them.
I contemplated finding a permanent resting
place for the bonds in the vaults of some great
institution, but as none of the trustees of such
corporations were interested in my enterprise I
put off the attempt from time to time until the
panic of May, 1884, postponed it to the Greek
Kalends.

When work extends over half a continent its
call for cash is appalling and I wonder as I look
back how I was able to provide the money and
keep up full steam on construction. Thirty
vears ago was not as to-dav for you could almost
count the millionaires on your fingers while

BANKERS AND MERCHANTS 357

multi-millionaire was an uncoined word. Ex-
cepting the Standard Oil, the Western Union
was the most ruthless monopolist in the field and
from Wall Street to our construction camps it
was in line of battle before us making attacks
which never ceased. To the very hour when the
panic struck I had overtures from the enemy,
but I had pledged myself never to follow in the
wake of my predecessors who one after another
had challenged the Great Monopoly only to sur-
render to it in the end.

The big telegraph company had made ene-
mies right and left and powerful interests
were ready to cast their lot with us soon as they
were convinced of our permanence and inde-
pendence. The Wall Street end of the work
held me down wThen I needed the time to develop
such alliances. I needed help in the field of
finance, a man of imagination who could solve
new problems as they arose, the kind of man one
meets in a blue moon. I wanted yet more a man
of technical experience who could measure up to
the demands of the great work I dreamed of ac-

358 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

complishing. I knew the man, he has done the
same work for another company and I would
have had him but for the crash that was so near.

How Fate loves to play with us! On April
1st, 1884 (All Fools' Day), a powerful syndi-
cate proposed an alliance with me for the promo-
tion on a big scale of the Bankers and Merchants
Telegraph Company. All my plans were to be
carried out, though the control of the company
was to rest in a committee. In all respects this
was what I wanted, for though willing to give
mind, body and estate to the work I hated the
province of dictator and always wanted some
Court of Appeals to review my often hasty deci-
sions. I could hardly sleep that night, and when
two days later the representatives of two bond
houses spent the evening at my house negotiat-
ing for the purchase of all that were unissued of
our ten million bond issue, I walked on air.
During the next few days I closed many con-
tracts for short lines which had been held up
pending the negotiations.

Syndicate matters were to be closed up on

BANKERS AND MERCHANTS 359

May 1st. In anticipation of the announcement
some of the new interests sold Western Union
short to an extent that on April 29th broke the
price of that stock to 61 from a much higher quo-
tation. Either because of these sales or simply
coincidental with them the general market gave
way and the failure of Keene on the following
day gave an air of panic to the situation. The
closing of the syndicate deal went over until the
skies should be clear. On the 6th of May the
failure of Grant and Ward wrecked the Marine
Bank and the panic was on, good and plenty.
The office of Grant and Ward at 2 Wall Street
adjoined my own and the association was not
pleasant.

The days that followed were distressing.
Day by day old loans were called while the
sources of supply for new ones contracted with
each hour. There were a few thousand shares of
our stock that I did not own and most of these
found their way to my office through sales by
brokers for cash when they found themselves in
need. Sometimes as three o'clock approached

360 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

and I was half -happy in the thought that the
troubles of the day were over I was startled by
the report of a purchase for cash of shares that
depleted by from twenty to fifty thousand dol-
lars a balance that was already inadequate. For
no matter how many shares were offered I must
buy them. It would have been instant ruin to
let the price decline.

On the 14th of May the scarcity of money was
such that four per cent per diem was paid for a
loan secured by government bonds. I dare not
risk drawing checks for loans that were called
for the following day and in company with other
prominent houses announced my suspension on
the morning of the 15th.

The Bankers and Merchants had cash and se-
curities of its own and a desperate attempt was
made to carry it on which was most unwise for
with my failure its fate was a foregone conclu-
sion. It met its obligations by borrowing on its
bonds wThich depreciated rapidly, thus cutting
out value from under the stock.

BANKERS AND MERCHANTS 361

The day came when the protection of the prop-
erty from legal harpies became so imperative
that all interests joined in the choice of a tele-
graph man whom they asked the court to appoint
as receiver. Stockholders, bondholders, and
creditors united in this request, but a Tammany
judge refused the request and appointed a noto-
rious Tammany man as receiver. While this
was commonly accepted as a Western Union
move I have always thought it a typical Tam-
many trick. The Western Union had sins
enough of its own to answer for in the matter
without that. For example its men, headed by
General Eckert, armed with axes broke into our
building and tore away the wires of our system
as they led into our offices and put us out of busi-
ness. This act of burglary was denounced by
the courts and heavy damages recovered, but no
penny ever found its way to any bondholder or
other creditor of the Bankers and Merchants to
which it belonged. For the chief of the legal
firm that fought our battle was a man of high at-

362 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

tainments such as enabled him to charge nearly
a million dollars for breaking the will of a friend
of mine.

''Wheresoever the carcass is there will the
eagles be gathered together," and the skies were
darkened with legal birds of prey hastening to
the feast. Scores of letters from the lawyers of
our system poured in upon me. All began with
assurances of sympathy, all closed with an ap-
peal for influence in the writer's behalf which
should give them an extra chance at the carcass.
The gem of the collection came from a lawyer in
an Eastern city to whom I had sent much busi-
ness. He began with the assurance that he
would do anything that would promote my in-
terests, but that as hope for the company was
gone it could make no difference to me what be-
came of the wreckage, and with appalling frank-
ness he outlined a scheme of robbery which he
proposed to keep entirely within legal lines.

It is profitless to prolong the obsequies after
the receiver has been appointed. I mean profit-
less to the mourners.

CHAPTER XIX

COURTS AND CORRUPTION

On the afternoon of that dreadful day of
panic when I decided that I dare not draw an-
other check, I thought to immediately interview
the larger creditors, seeing as many as possible
during that night and pointing out how little for-
bearance and support were needed to carry us
all through any possible panic. I was weakened
in spirit by the suddenness of the impending ca-
lamity and I needed the support of a virile mind
in the quick campaign I proposed. Unhappily
I made the fatal mistake of consulting counsel
and it was solemnly urged upon me that in such a
storm one should place himself under the protec-
tion of the court through an assignment and the
appointment of a receiver. This, I was assured,
would conserve my resources, prevent any attack
upon them and give me rest and time to marshal

3G3

364 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

my assets and prepare to continue my work after
the storm had blown over. How silly it all
sounds now that I have learned that a Tammany
court is like a beast of the jungle in its protection
of any business interest that is thrown upon its
mercy. I consented to make the assignment
which I didn't believe in then and which I have
ever since regarded as a device of the devil and
other lawyers.

The great crash came and I held receptions in
my late office which creditors attended, bringing
their counsel with them, for the law having been
appealed to, each creditor feared being placed at
a disadvantage unless he had his lawyer with him.
Yet despite the obstructive advice of lawyers,
the offers of creditors were so kindly and their
suggestions so wise that it looked for a time as if
by unanimous consent a settlement might be
reached, but the lawyers soon made that impos-
sible and a Tammany man who represented a
client with a large but inequitable claim found a
flaw in the assignment and without notice or

COURTS AND CORRUPTION S65

warning threw my office into the hands of a sher-
iff and his confederates.

The safe was opened and gone through as lit-
erally as if by a burglar. The firm's cash was in
the bank but among packages of securities be-
longing to customers was several thousand dol-
lars in bills. These were quickly pocketed. A
package of diamonds worth three or four thou-
sand dollars was pocketed. The office of the
sheriff of New York City had stolen six or seven
thousand dollars and there was no redress. Ex-
cepting for the satisfaction of doing it, it doesn't
pay to fight Tammany. I have even employed
an ex-Tammany judge at a large fee, only to be
betrayed by him just prior to his again becoming
a Tammany candidate. Twice I have been to
the Court of Appeals fighting against a promi-
nent Tammany lawyer, counsel for Richard Cro-
ker, for the archbishop in New York of the
Catholic Church, and for a Trust Company with
Standard Oil affiliations. Each of these cases
I lost by a single vote, my only consolation in

366 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

one case was hearing the most distinguished ex-
judge of the court itself declare, "That decision
was a damned outrage."

The other case came later and although of
great public importance I will merely outline it
here that I may sooner get back to pleasanter
subjects.

The small-minded president of a large trust
company which was a creditor of mine claimed to
have made a personal loss on stock of my com-
pany which he had bought, and thereafter he
used his influence and the claim of his company
to pursue me. This was not prudent for I knew
of a breach of trust of his company under his ad-
ministration through which friends of mine and
others had been robbed of fifteen million dollars
and when I found time I got busy on the subject.
I interviewed many of the victims and found all
of them bitter against the trust company and
denunciatory of its management, but most of
them were hopeless of recovery against an insti-
tution so politically and financially entrenched.

One large loser said to me, "I have been the

COURTS AND CORRUPTION 367

victim of a confidence game that was worse than
highway robbery and the conspirators ought to
be punished from the promoter of the scheme
down to the trust company officials, but to fight
them in the New York courts for my stolen
money would be like chasing a rainbow." Al-
most, or quite, the ablest of our New York law-
yers declared that the trust company was legally
as well as morally liable for every dollar lost by
the bondholders but that the case was too big for
the court, that the liability of the trust company
was over twenty million dollars and that our
court of last resort would never dare affirm a ver-
dict of such an amount against an institution
with Standard Oil backing.

I spent much time in effecting an organization
of the bondholders of the Oregon Pacific Rail-
road Company, for the canvass extended abroad,
wrhere one house alone, Hope and Co. of Amster-
dam, held $300,000 of the bonds. My big suc-
cess was in Philadelphia where the Investment
Company signed for the $1,243,000 in bonds on
which it had lost and the Finance for $695,000,

368 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

while the president of the latter company,
George H. Earle, Jr., undertook the legal direc-
tion of the case and put it in the hands of his
personal counsel. The suit was brought in the
name of Frederick W. Rhinelander for himself
and other bondholders.

For three years the litigation proceeded be-
fore reaching the Court of Appeals which then
took six months to render its decision. That de-
cision was unanimously against the trust com-
pany on the merits of the case. It had been
guilty of a gross breach of trust and was legally
liable to the wronged bondholders to the extent
of their injuries, some twenty million dollars.
There was no palliation of the wrong, none was
possible, no impeachment of the justice of a ver-
dict against the defendant, but a hole must be
found to crawl out of and four members of the
court found the hole, or rather made one, for their
plea was an insult to the intelligence of a child.
If the decision had established a principle of law
instead of being a mere subterfuge for the occa-
sion it would have destroyed the faith of inves-

"When a hooked tarpon wrecked my canoe Julian worked
like mad with his plates and rescued me when he had time."

Poqe 460

COURTS AND CORRUPTION 369

tors in all bonds protected by trusteeships under
the laws of New York, for it cuts the ground
from under all such alleged securities. The de-
cision was rendered December 8, 1902, and the
scathing minority report is especially illuminat-
ing.

It is curious how tightly I was tied up. I had
assigned away all property and rights and could
hardly lift a finger legally. Then everything
had been taken from my assignee and he could
do nothing but make motions in court which al-
ways went against him. When a distinguished
member of the bar was engaged to appear for
him he returned from the court room to report:

"The case was decided before it was argued.
It is a change of court and not of counsel that
you need."

I like to deal with principals and I took my
legal trouble to the most prominent Tammany
judge in the city. I wondered what his attitude
would be, in view of the fact that his last meet-
ing with me had been in my steamship office, fif-
teen years before, where he had called for $5,000,

370 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

his customary retainer for looking after our
taxes. He received me in his Chambers and was
just as chatty and agreeable as a judge as he had
been when as a Tammany lawyer he called upon
me for a check. Cases waited in his court while
I told him my story to which he listened atten-
tively.

"I should burn my fingers if I interfered,''
said he, "and it wouldn't do you any good.
Don't be quixotic and don't kick against the
pricks. Let your creditors fight their own bat-
tles."

I consulted another prominent Tammany
judge who often spent evenings at my house
where he was given to making cynical comments
on his own wise dictums while wearing the
ermine. His expressions were more guarded
than usual, but the substance of his advice was
that of his brother on the bench.

In the long struggle for a settlement with
creditors there were strong forces that battled
for me and soon the signatures of ninety per cent
were obtained. My enemy of the trust company

COURTS AND CORRUPTION 371

was forced into line by pressure from quarters
which he dare not oppose and it was only when
less than one per cent of the total indebtedness
was unpledged that the effort was finally blocked
by a bank with the smallest claim. The two men
who controlled it openly declared that their claim
was so small that big creditors could afford to
concede their payment in cash rather than per-
mit the settlement to fail. To this suggestion
one creditor voiced the indignation of all by say-
ing— but there was too much profanity in the
remark to justify its repetition here.

I have reached the end of the Wall Street part
of my story. If it had to be begun again it
would not be written. As memory unrolled the
film it was like a continuous nightmare, the tri-
umphs were so paltry and the failures so vivid
that the physical pain came back, the heart
throbs, the goose flesh as the blood seemed to chill
in the veins and the flesh to creep.

For more than half a century I have known
the men of the hour and their methods and have
seen their feet of clay. Consolidations, stock

372 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

waterings, manipulations of public funds and of
funds of the public, I have known the inside of
and their purposes ever since the crazy-quilt cur-
rency foisted on the country during the war
made such schemes profitable. Among old-time
associates wTith whom I had intimate relations
were great merchants, importers, manufacturers,
promoters, and capitalists, as well as politicians,
legislators, and lobbyists. To one who has stood
behind the scenes and watched the machinery, the
glamour the imposture possesses for those before
the curtain is incredible.

Demonstrating to the people that the tariff
robbed them of two billions a year, confiscating
one-fourth of the earnings of every laborer in
the country, showing them in detail where and
how the boodle had gone and who still held it
never made a dent in their intelligence. Point-
ing out that a single branch of the tariff iniquity
had been capitalized by Wall Street methods into
a billion dollar tax on industry only resulted in
a mixture of worship and dull envy of the pro-
moters of the spoliation.

COURTS AND CORRUPTION 373

I have listened hundreds of times to cynical
admissions of beneficiaries of Government pro-
moted graft, as they expressed contempt for the
intelligence of the people. A great manufac-
turer was conducting me over his mills as he
spoke with startling frankness, giving full details
of the cost to himself of keeping Washington
straight on the tariff.

"But there will come an end to all that," I ex-
claimed. " 'You can't fool all the people all the
time.' "

"Can't we?" said he. "I will stand by you
while you talk to my people and tell them what
you and I know to be true and when you are
through I'll undo all you have said with a smile
and a shake of my head."

During more than a score of years I have
fought the financial fallacies of the day with pen
and tongue. For many months I contributed to
a widely circulated journal a weekly column de-
voted to denunciation of the tariff and kindred
iniquities. The only thing I am sure of having
accomplished by my work is securing the scorn-

374 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

fill repute of being a free-trader, a visionary, and
a socialist.

Time brings its revenges and the people are
flocking to the standard under which the patient
few have waited. The character of the heathen-
ish, yes, the taboo, tariff is becoming understood
and the plea of its supporters now is that the can-
cerous growth should be extirpated slowly.

I urged that the Post Office Department,
which is the only great business in this country
which is beneficently run, establish, or take over,
its natural adjuncts, the telegraph and the tele-
phone. The latter was in its infancy then and
the delay in establishing it as a Government
function has worked a vast loss to the people, but
glory be, they are soon coming into their rights.
How futile was my plea for a parcels post wras
clear when the representative of the Express
Trust in the Senate of the United States could
sneer down the call of a Postmaster General in
behalf of the people. Now at the first tentative
tilt between a Government department and the
Express Trust the latter was unhorsed while the

COURTS AND CORRUPTION 375

service to the people was doubled and its cost
halved.

The conscience of the people is awakening and
there is more than a promise in that. It is blun-
dering along, fighting windmills and dummies
chiefly, but when wide awake it will fight with
intelligence. The Government calls down the
Stock Exchange when the trouble is higher up.
It has sought to regulate Trusts when it might
as well have attempted to regulate Hades.

A Trust is a monopoly maintained by the pur-
chase or crushing of all opposition. The only
opposition that can be neither bought nor intimi-
dated is that of the people themselves through
their Government. The first push of a parcels
post finger knocked out the Express Trust. An
officer of the United States strangled a poten-
tially great monopoly before it was born and
there will be others like Colonel Goethals when
the people are ready for them.

Mail, telegraph, and telephone service are the
nerves of the nation's business and but for the
Government control of the former it is beyond

376 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

the mind of man to conceive of the burdens
monopoly would have laid upon the people.

Transportation, which is the life-blood of com-
merce, has been less fortunate. I wasted energy
and invited opprobrium when I hammered away
at the fact that the people had paid promoters for
transcontinental lines down to the last dollar of
construction ; that huge bonuses were given in ad-
dition; and that finally this property for which
the people had paid was presented to monopolists
with privateer license to levy tribute upon them.
The wrongs of the past must remain unrighted,
but they should serve as warnings for the future.
Transportation is the people's business and rests
on their right of eminent domain. It should be
conducted in their sole interest by their own
agents. To allow Trusts to exploit it for their
own ends and trust to Commerce Commissions
or any other device to work out justice for the
people is as fantastic as it is foolish.

My plea that the people's representatives
should establish for them oppositions to oppres-
sive Trusts was derided as Socialism but it is the

COURTS AND CORRUPTION 377

coming doctrine with its handwriting upon the
wall which thinking men are already interpreting.
There is no oppressive Trust or monopoly in the
land which cannot be dealt with promptly, effec-
tively, honestly, and to the furtherance of every
just human interest throughout the country.

Some day the people may send men of simple
honesty and plain business intelligence to Wash-
ington. When this is done it will mark the mil-
lennium. No such man would vote for the pen-
sion graft which has literally robbed the people
of a sum so colossal as to bankrupt the imagina-
tion. Brigandage under cover of River and
Harbor, public building and other bills would
cease. With business sense and integrity in the
Capitol no trust could ever oppress the citizen.
No man would lack work and no woman or child
go hungry in the Republic. There is opportu-
nity, work, food, and many luxuries for all and
an honest apportionment of opportunity, and of
distribution of results based on the value of work
done calls for no superhuman ability.

The first weapons which the people need in

378 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

their battle against greed and corruption are per-
haps the Initiative, Referendum, and Recall, es-
pecially the Recall.

Since the foregoing was written the stars in
their courses have fought for the finances of the
United States.

Cunning men and their dupes had contrived a
system of expansion through which to control the
cash and credit of the country as John Law con-
trolled the finances of France just two hundred
years ago. Of course it worked smoothly at first.
So did John Law's scheme and for three years he
rode upon a rising tide of prosperity until he was
accounted a demigod by the people. The crash
of his system was as sudden and complete as its
rise had been meteoric.

Happily for our own experiment the world war
has introduced new elements of such potency that
all ordinary checks and balances through the ship-
ments of products and the workings of exchange
were overwhelmed. There came a sudden, ab-
normal and tremendous demand for our products,
together with a wiping out of competition in

COURTS AND CORRUPTION 379

many lines which has flooded our country with an
embarrassment of riches and made the great war-
ring nations our debtors. We may contemplate
with calmness the working out of this trouble, the
clearing of the roiled waters.

But there is a phase of the situation more un-
pleasant to contemplate. Where do we stand
morally in the great death-grapple between civ-
ilization and barbarism? Would there be terri-
torial lines of resistance if the "Black Death" re-
appeared? That greatest of all epidemics car-
ried off 300,000 men, women and children in five
months of the seventeenth century.

The victims of the greater plague, made in
Germany, have already been ten times that num-
ber. Innocent men, women and children have
been bayoneted and burned, starved, poisoned
and drowned through this malignant infection of
flendishness matured through an incubation of
forty years.

Slavery in its worst form has followed the rape
of Belgium and France, where women and chil-
dren are starved and men murdered if thev fail to

380 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

perform their tasks of making munitions of war
to be used against their own people.

This Frankenstein monster proposes to extend
similar slavery throughout the earth, through
many spokesmen he has boasted of it and his
design is not to be doubted. His threats have
extended specifically to our country, his murder-
ous hands have been laid upon our citizens and
German journals make significant comment that
the distance from Bremen to New York is less
than that from Wilhelmshaven to the Dardanelles
and is quite within the radius of a submarine.

Germany may be bankrupt but she will fight
on, in the hope of looting Paris and London,
trampling England under her feet as she has Bel-
gium and exacting a gigantic indemnity, which
will be the least of the horrors inflicted upon her
helpless victims. This result is as certain as the
rising of the sun, if the heroes of France and
England wTho are offering their lives in the
trenches succumb to the rain of shells or the
poison of gas.

The fall of England, which carries with it the

COURTS AND CORRUPTION 381

fate of Canada, puts us, ipso facto, in the path of
a triumphant foe unless we are prepared to swal-
low our Monroe Doctrine, and even that will not
save us from German militarism, drunk with suc-
cess and enriched with the wealth of England.
How many billions of indemnity will be de-
manded of us because American bullets were
found in the bodies of German conscripts?

This is no fanciful danger, our wisest men, our
best informed citizens recognize it and are clam-
oring for armies and armament to meet it. But
this would take years of gigantic expenditure and
would be too late for its purpose. Common
sense and common humanity point out a better, a
safer and a just policy which would quickly
restore peace to the world, make of us the bene-
factors of our race and end forever that competi-
tive armament which has ruined Europe and
threatens us.

We alone of the great nations, in a contest
peculiarly ours, stand aloof, watchfully waiting,
calmly investigating, challenging the citizenship
of murdered Americans and denying the right of

38£ WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

the allies, our allies, to keep from the common
enemy the copper and the cotton for its shells and
the supplies for its armies, that our people may
coin the misery of the world into unholy dollars.

The enemy of the world cast international law
into the scrap heap and made a fetish of diabolism
and now Christianity, justice and humanity, no
less than patriotism and self respect point clearly
to our duty. Our foundries should blaze and our
factories run night and day to flood Russia with
munitions of war and supply any deficiency on
the western battle line of our allies while we
should count it a privilege as it is our duty to
humanity to feed their armies and make safe their
finances.

We should seek the alliance of all now neutral
nations to draw a line of non-intercourse about
the Kaiser's dominions until the upas shadow of
Prussian militarism has vanished from the earth.
No other earthly policy would so quickly end the
war, save millions of human lives in the coming
year and uncounted millions in the future.

For great peoples are grateful and no nation

COURTS AND CORRUPTION 383

would then refuse our demand for disarmament
down to a police force and for a federation, in
whose councils we would stand high, with power
to enforce its decrees and banish war forever
from the earth.

We have the unquenchable hatred of the mili-
tary caste that dominates Germany because we
abhor its piracy and poisoning, its breaking of
faith and its murder of noncombatants. We
have earned the contempt of nations whose sons
are dying for our cause because we never voiced
a protest against such atrocities until a pirate
commander made a hundred of our people walk
the plank. Then our protest was made, hat in
hand, with expressions of distinguished consider-
ation for the double-dyed murderer. Even Mex-
ico taunts us with cowardice, which is nothing —
unless we deserve it.

Andrew Jackson once gave a lesson in diplo-
macy to our minister to Turkey :

"Ask nothing but what is right and submit to
nothing that is wrong, by the Eternal!" When
our flag was trampled upon in Constantinople the

384 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

crisis was so defiantly met that our flag was
saluted, the guilty soldiers bastinadoed and their
officer ate out of the minister's hand, before the
sun went down. Our modern Moses was not in
command of the State Department at this time.

It is the day of great accomplishments and the
opportunity of the ages is ours, to measure up to
as the benefactors of our race, or to sink beneath
in weak timidity and slimy selfishness.

CHAPTER XX

MINING CAMPS AND DYNAMITE 1

It was the dream of my life to live in the wilds,
and even during my greatest activity in business
I was looking forward to a time when my taste
could be gratified. The opportunity came in the
seventies, for while on a fishing trip I found a
valley in the Catskills so surrounded by moun-
tains and shut in by trees that it promised all
the seclusion I could ask. I secured the needed
acreage for a song and inviting some friends to
join me we set up our lodge in the wilderness.

From the first I spent all the time I could
spare at the cabin and when burdens seemed
greater than I could bear and there was no sleep
for me in the city I had only to start for the
woods and as the nearest station to the cabin was

1 Some of the experiences found in this chapter have been nar-
rated by the author in "Dick Among the Miners" of the Boy Ex-
plorers' series.

385

386 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

reached, and but ten miles of mountain road,
ravine, and valley remained to be traveled my
troubles fell away as the burden of Bunyan's
Christian rolled from his shoulders, and my
strength came back as it came to Antseus after
contact with his Mother Earth.

I ran a telegraph wire through the woods from
the nearest station and the sounder in my room
was a comfort when it didn't sound. My family
were happy in their sylvan surroundings but they
came to hate that sounder, for they learned its
language and knew when it called me to the city
in tones not to be disregarded.

On one such occasion I started in the black-
ness of a rainy night for a ten mile tramp over
a dangerous road to the little village of Shokan.
It was near midnight when I arrived, the town
was asleep, and I had to arouse several people
before I could find one who would drive me to
Rondout, eighteen miles away. At that place I
hired a negro to commandeer a boat, in the own-
er's absence, and row me across the Hudson to
Wheatsheaf, where I hired another man to take

MINING CAMPS AND DYNAMITE 387

me to Poughkeepsie, reaching that town in time
to take the owl train for New York.

To the restless body and active mind the pleas-
ures of Paradise would pall without an occa-
sional foray outside the gates and when the op-
portunity came to me to explore and exploit or
examine and condemn a group of alleged mines
in Colorado I availed of the offer. These mines
were high up in the Needles, the most pictur-
esque part of the State, and on paper there were
more than a score of them. Much money had
been spent on prospects but the real mining had
been in New York. Shafts had been sunk and
tunnels driven and names given to these holes in
the ground which were scattered over more than
a square mile. The mining had been unscientific
beyond belief. It was doubtful which was the
richer, or the poorer, the stacked up ore or the
dump pile. Not even a blowpipe assay, so far
as I could learn, had been made of any of the ore
which had been taken out. The same happy-go-
lucky system obtained among the few other
mines in the district.

388 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

Men working in couples sunk shafts with the
vaguest idea of what they sought, while others
frankly and cynically admitted that they were
looking for a sucker. One miner urged me to
visit his camp where he and his partner were
working. It happened that as we approached
the mine, which was merely an open cut, a blast
was fired.

"My partner has just put in a shot. Let's
see if he has got anything," said my companion
upon whose invitation I was there. When we
reached the cut the working miner handed me a
specimen which he had just picked out from the
smoking debris. I subsequently assayed the
sample and found it abnormally rich, but the
salting of the mine was so clumsy that it wouldn't
have deceived a child. Most miners are self-
deceived, and, blinded by the possible prize, can-
not see how small is their chance of winning it.
Two brothers with property and a business in
Ohio spent five months of the year camping be-
side the hole they were digging not far from one
of our mines. Year after year they kept up the

MINING CAMPS AND DYNAMITE 389

work and if life and strength hold out they will
yet be heard from in China.

My friend Ned Whiton who was with me rep-
resented an interest in the property and we de-
cided to concentrate the work on two of the more
developed mines which were situated in differ-
ent basins and nearly a mile apart. Ned took
samples of ore to Silverton from most of the
mines on which the assessment work had been
done to have assays made and it is a commentary
upon the mining morals of that time that one of
the experts asked if he wanted a good or a bad
report. The returns were poor enough, running
from ten ounces to the ton down to a mere trace
of silver. The silver carried no lead and none
of the veins were rich enough and large enough
to make smelting profitable as then conducted.

We used trains of burros to ship the ore as we
got it out to sampling works in Silverton, but the
returns like the assays were unsatisfactory and
as I had a theoretical knowledge of assaying and
a practical knowledge of chemical analysis we
sent for the necessary apparatus and fitted up an

390 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

assay office. My only anxiety was about the
fuel, but from my first charcoal pit came twenty-
five bushels of as good charcoal as I could have
asked for. When the work had been done, the
furnace set up, and I was ready to test a sample
of ore from the Black Giant mine I was nervous
as a witch, more than I remembered having been
when dealing in big sums on the Gold Exchange.
I knew the theory of the assaying I was to at-
tempt, had books to help me and in my own lab-
oratory had done the same thing but this seemed
real and my previous work a dream.

The ore was pulverized, averaged, and twelve
grains of the pulp carefully weighed out to be
mixed with lead and borax for fusion in the scori-
fier. When the slag had been separated from
the cooled button of lead and silver the latter
was placed on a red-hot cupel in the muffle. The
alloy melted, greasy-looking drops of litharge
formed on its surface, and over it light clouds
played as the oxide of lead vaporized while other
portions were absorbed by the cupel. Soon iri-
descent colors played over the tiny globule

MINING CAMPS AND DYNAMITE 391

and in an instant its sudden brightening told that
the operation was over. When the button had
been weighed and the result indicated nine ounces
of silver to the ton I was greatly gratified to find
that the result closely approximated the report
of the assayers in whom previously I had no con-
fidence. When analysis by the wet process con-
firmed the result I developed the assurance of an
old assayer and thereafter made regular assays
of ore from the mines as we developed them be-
sides sampling the ore from every undeveloped
mine or outcropping on which work had been
done.

I was not a mining engineer yet I got the credit
of being one through a single incident. The
Black Giant mine consisted of a tunnel some two
hundred feet long running in from the vertical
face of the mountain. It was sought to ventilate
it through a pipe which ran along the roof of the
tunnel from the breast to the mouth, where it was
connected with a stove pipe some thirty feet long
rising from a stove in which a fire was kept burn-
ing. The heated column of air was expected to

392 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

pump the air from the horizontal pipe which
would draw its supply from the breast of the tun-
nel. It worked very poorly and as the mine was
above timber line fuel had to be packed from a
long distance.

It chanced that the tunnel had tapped a spring
and that a stream of water fell down the cliff
from its mouth. When the foreman complained
that the men lost much time waiting for the
fumes to dissipate after every blast I surprised
him by telling him to dismantle the stove, turn
the pipe vertically down the cliff, connect the
elbow that had led from the stove, with the air
pipe from the tunnel, and turn the stream of
water which was flowing from the tunnel into the
vertical pipe through the tee that had been used
to connect with the air pipe. I had a bucket so
placed at the delivery end of the vertical pipe as
to keep that end submerged and make it impossi-
ble for air to flow back through the pipe. Then
making a little dam from the mud of the drills
and partly blocking the intake pipe till the water
rose above it I told the foreman to take a look at

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MINING CAMPS AND DYNAMITE 393

the breast. Several miners started into the tun-
nel with him, partly impressed by my own confi-
dence but yet more by the hissing of the air wher-
ever the pipe leaked which warned them that
something was doing.

"How is the ventilation, now?" I asked the
foreman as he came back with his eyes bulging.

"Never saw anything like it. We'll have to
chain the drills to the breast to keep 'em out of
the pipe."

The principle was simple enough, being that of
the Sprengel air pump which I had employed in
many ways in my laboratory and which is in use
for exhausting the air in the glass bulbs used for
electric lighting.

Ned and I varied the monotony of our work
by doing a little mining ourselves. Our drilling
was single-handed for although I had the nerve
to hold the drill while my companion wielded the
sledge, I could never strike an efficient blow while
he held the drill. Then I never acquired the true
miner's nonchalant air as I crimped with my
teeth the fulminating cap on the fuse. I couldn't

394 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

help thinking what a mess my brains would make
on the walls of the tunnel if I happened to bite
a bit too hard. One becomes a fatalist regarding
dynamite in a mining camp. There is no other
way to preserve his peace of mind. As I was
leaving the camp one morning to ride over the
divide to the Iowa Basin, Tim, the superintend-
ent, asked me if I would take some stuff over to
the Iowa mine. He then proceeded to tie a
forty pound package to the cantle of my saddle.

"What you got there, Tim?" I asked.

"Giant," was the reply.

I was riding Bay Billy, who had an obsession
that any black stump was likely to prove a black
bear and was given to executing a buck jump
whenever he met one too suddenly. On such
occasions I went up with the pony but returning
landed anywhere from pommel to cantle. Dur-
ing the ride I meditated upon the possible result
of my landing like a pile driver upon that mass of
dynamite.

A few mornings later I was wakened by a
dynamite explosion that shook the cabin.

MINING CAMPS AND DYNAMITE 395

Hastily dressing I found that the miners had
arranged to celebrate my birthday. A hole had
been bored in a great pine about eighty yards
from the cabin, a dynamite cartridge p laced in it
with a piece of white paper fixed over it as a
target, and I was expected to explode the
cartridge with a bullet from my rifle. I had al-
ready begun photographing the creatures of the
wild and thought a tree in the air would go well
with my collection so I handed my camera to
Ned, giving him careful instructions.

Could I hit that tiny bit of paper, a speck
which I could scarcely see at that distance? I
doubted it, and most of the miners who were look-
ing on doubted it too and said so, but Tim Hart
was my defender and scouted the idea that I
could miss. I was burdened with anxiety far
beyond any possible importance of the occasion,
but I always shot best under pressure and when I
fired there was a great roar and the big tree shot
up in the air. I was pleased as Punch and
thought of the picture I would have to show of
the explosion and the tree in the air. But Ned

396 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

had pulled too earnestly the string that worked
the shutter and the clumsy contrivance had been
torn from the tube of the camera.

I returned to the cabin where Tom, our boy-
miner cook, was frying pancakes for our break-
fast. I washed my hands in a basin of ice and
water outside the door and thought to warm them
in the oven of the stove. To my horror I saw
that the oven was half full of dynamite cartridges.
To my peremptory order to Tom to remove them

he exclaimed:

"There ain't no danger in giant, see this," and
taking a stick of the deadly explosive in one hand
and a match in the other was about to illustrate
his theory when I gave him something else to
think about.

Tom was the pet of the camp and always a joy
to me. When I wanted the stovepipe chimney
wired to the thirty-foot pole which had been set
up for it, it was Tom who volunteered for the
job and did it. He loved to scale peaks from
which fine views could be had and carry my
camera for me. Across the narrow valley from

MINING CAMPS AND DYNAMITE 397

our cabin Mt. Eolus lifted its cap of snow 2400
feet above our own elevation of 11,500, if my
triangulation was correct. Two scientists failed
in their attempt to climb it and after they had
given it up Tom's comment to me was :

"Scientific fellers can't climb, it takes a miner
boy for that. I'll take you to the top to-morrow
if you'll go with me and I'll carry your camera
for you, too."

"But, Tom, to-morrow will be Sunday."

"Ain't no Sunday above timber line! Will
you go?"

Tom once asked for a vacation of three days
and after he had gone I learned why he wanted
it. A friend of his was advertised to run a race
in Silverton. It was a hundred-yard dash, best
two in three, and Tom's friend told him that the
other fellow had been paid to throw it. But it
was Tom's friend who threw it and lost in two
straight heats. Tom walked home, leaving in
Silverton not only his own money but that of the
whole mining camp.

Mining, like other forms of gambling, dangles

398 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

prizes before the eyes of its dupes and sometimes
an assay or a series of them gave me wild hopes
of striking a bonanza. But always the rich ore
was in pockets or the vein was so narrow that it
was too costly to follow it through the hard coun-
try rock. Yet at each council of war we decided
to go on, though more and more I left the collect-
ing of samples to the foremen and with Ned went
away for a day or more at a time. For he was a
hunter born and loved to wander afield with his
rifle while I was crazy over the coming weapon
and only used the rifle when the distance was too
great for the camera.

CHAPTER XXI

HUNTING AND PROSPECTING IN THE ROCKIES

I wanted more food for my camera and Ned
thought he would like a hunt, so we decided to
cross the divide to the Vallecito on a prospecting
tour. We took with us Tim Hart and Macken-
zie, who was a miner by profession and a hunter
by occupation. A tent, tools, and provisions
were packed on a burro and after crossing the
divide Ned led the procession down the steep trail
to the Vallecito. I had fastened rifle and camera
to Bay Billy's saddle for the trail was so steep
that I wanted both hands free. I was just be-
hind my companion when he shouted, —

"Two ungodly grizzlies, bigger than oxen!"

I could see the great brutes as they shambled

up the narrow trail shouldering one another, and

already within a hundred feet of us. I slipped

down between my pony and the almost vertical

399

400 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

precipice above us while he stood on the very edge
of a sheer fall of a hundred or so feet. There
was no time to be frightened and nothing to be
done if I were, but there was a glorious chance for
a picture and I clutched at the fastenings of my
camera, praying that the straps would come loose
quickly. Ned was as earnest about his rifle as I
with my camera if I may judge from the ejacu-
lations that reached my ears. He remarked to
me later that it was no credit to a man to be cool
when it was his friend who was to be eaten first.
There seemed no escape from a hand to hand
encounter, but the grizzlies found one and man-
aged to crawl up a crumbled ledge of rock to a
bench thirty feet above the trail. We scrambled
after them and reached the bench with hearts
beating like trip hammers in wild efforts to feed
our lungs with oxygen from the rarefied air.
The grizzlies were climbing over the crest of a
mountain some two hundred yards away and I
am sure Ned's shot went wild, while even with
the camera I missed. The expression of my.
companion's indignation was addressed equally

HUNTING AND PROSPECTING 401

to the bears and to me. To the former he
shouted, —

"Come back! Come back! I'll give you a
thousand dollars to come back. I'll fight you
with my hands if you'll come."

To me he said, —

"If you were as quick with your rifle as you
are with that {participle) camera you'd be of
some use in this country."

We camped by the beautiful Vallecito and
while the men were doing the camp work we as-
sembled our trout rods and dropped our flies
down a twenty-foot precipice of rock into a dark,
deep pool in the stream. Fishing with a rod was
a farce for scarcely had the three flies of my cast
touched the water when each of them was taken
by a trout. I lost two in the attempt to land
them, which could only be done by lifting them
out of the water by the line and hauling them up
to where I stood. We discarded our rods and
cutting short poles hauled out about two trout a
minute in most unsportsmanlike manner.

As we sat by the blazing camp fire that night

402 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

our "tummies tiff" with trout, bacon, and hoe
cake, we listened to the voice of the siren, who in
Mackenzie's gruff tones told of the wonderful
sport to be found on the Limestone Mesa,
the long-time hunting ground of the Ute In-
dians.

"How long would it take us to get there?" I
asked.

'We can be there to-morrow night. We are
almost at the foot of the mountain now."

"Then we'll be on the Mesa to-morrow night,"
said I, for it was needless to consult with Ned
when a hunting trip was in prospect.

Early on the following day we stood at the foot
of a precipitous mountain which I wouldn't have
believed even a goat could climb. Mackenzie
and Tim were tightening the girths of the
broncos and repacking the burro's burden, while
Ned and I were regaling ourselves on raspber-
ries, with which the bushes about us were laden.
The date was September 19, 1886, and in view of
what happened a few days later, no incident of
that hunt has been more fixed in my mind than

HUNTING AND PROSPECTING 403

that lunch of raspberries, the very taste of which
are still fresh in my memory.

"Say your prayers and come on, boys," said
Mackenzie.

"Where is the trail?" I asked.

"Got to make one. If Tim and I go ahead
with the burro, can't you take care of yourselves
and your ponies?"

Mackenzie led the advance, followed by the
burro which Tim punched along. Lastly came
Ned and myself. It was a zigzag struggle up
the face of the cliff, which my bronco hugged
closely while I hugged him. Stones loosened by
the feet of the burro fifty feet above us, fell
dangerously near. At length a piece of rock
that must have weighed a hundred pounds
bounded directly over my head and thereafter, as
soon as a place was found where it was possible
for us to pass Tim and the burro, Ned and I took
new positions in the procession. My pony's
struggles were painful to see and I tried dis-
mounting and leading him. That I escaped with
torn trousers and a slightly bruised leg instead of

404 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

a broken one was my great good fortune. A
bronco will climb like a cat up the face of a
precipice but his forefeet come down like pile
drivers and it is most difficult to keep out of their
way.

We struggled on and on, often changing our
course, for hours. We were checked by an over-
hanging wall of rock on the face of which
Mackenzie found a shelf which a big-horn would
have distrusted. I closed mv eves with diz-
ziness while Bay Billy carried me across. All
crossed in safety but the burro, whose project-
ing pack threw his center of gravity outside the
shelf just as its end was reached. By great good
fortune he landed in the branches of a tree that
projected from the precipice forty feet below the
shelf and was the only obstacle to a fall of several
hundred feet. Lariats and ropes were collected
and Tim was lowered into the tree. At the end
of some hours of hazardous work both burro and
pack had been recovered, but the former was in-
capable of carrying his load. When his pack
had been distributed we all had to walk. The

HUNTING AND PROSPECTING 405

exertion of climbing 12,000 feet above the sea is
very great and when the Mesa was reached I was
too exhausted to speak. An hour later with half
a Rocky Mountain grouse, a pound of trout, and
a quart of tea inside and a tent and big camp-fire
outside, life once more seemed worth living.

"Grub's up!" was the welcome call that ushered
in the new day, yet breakfast waited while we
reveled in the wonderful view. Far beneath us
was the silver thread of the Vallecito River ; upon
each side a strip of vivid green; a broad belt of
aspens around the amphitheater of the valley, yel-
low as ocher in their changing leaves; another
belt above rich with the dark green of the fir ; the
gray rocks above timber line; the snow-capped
peaks, dazzling in the sunlight, and all crowned
with the brilliant blue of the cloudless sky.
Around me and beneath my feet were forty
varieties of flowers, few of which I had seen out-
side of the Rockies and many of them with a deli-
cacy of form and gorgeousness of coloring rarely
to be found elsewhere.

We rode the length of the Mesa, some eight

406 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

miles, through belts of woods alternating with
open fields, over masses of wild flowers and
around marshy thickets. Grouse were abundant
and the tracks of bear and deer plentiful, but the
few of the latter which we saw chanced to be does.
They were mule deer although universally called
blacktail in that country. The true blacktail is
not more than half their weight and is found only
near the Pacific coast.

At the lower end of the Mesa Ned and I tied
our ponies and started down a ravine on foot, one
upon each side. In a few minutes I jumped a
big buck within fifty yards and snapped my rifle
at him, but the cartridge failed to explode. I
had another chance at a hundred yards and again
my rifle failed me. I despaired of again seeing
the buck, but once more he appeared, this time
near the top of the precipice that formed the side
of the ravine. Fully two hundred and fifty
yards distant he presented a target the like of
which has seldom gladdened the eye and heart of
a sportsman. As he struggled up the last foot
of the ascent his antlers, head, and shoulders were

HUNTING AND PROSPECTING 407

outlined against the blue sky. For a second he
was immovable as the rock he was climbing. My
bullet passed directly through his heart and his
clear, perpendicular fall was over a hundred feet.
We returned to the Mesa, sent Mackenzie and
Tim to take care of the meat and mounting our
ponies started for our camp. My rifle had failed
me once and I lashed it to the saddle, announcing
that for the rest of that day I would hunt with
the camera.

After riding a mile our broncos became un-
manageable and refused to enter a thicket which
we desired to penetrate. After a struggle we
surrendered, and Ned tied his horse, Gambler,
to a tree. Gambler had earned his name through
his willingness to take chances. Bay Billy could
be relied upon not to desert his companion. We
entered the thicket on foot and began to under-
stand the shyness of our animals. The tracks of
grizzlies abounded and many square yards of
earth had been torn up by their powerful claws.
Ned and I separated the better to explore the
woods and agreed to meet by our ponies in two

408 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

hours. The thicket was dense and although I
heard the great creatures several times I only saw
one, but he was within a few yards. Yet I had
no chance with the camera and it was fortunate
I had no rifle since the creature was so hidden be-
hind the brush that I couldn't have found a vital
part to aim at.

While we were hunting, the temperature came
down with a run, dense clouds darkened the sky,
and a violent snow squall was soon in full blast.
We reached our rendezvous almost together only
to find that Bay Billy had untied Gambler and
that both had decamped. We found afterwards
that Bay Billy made a specialty of untying knots
with his teeth. In the blinding snow there was
no trail to follow and it was long after dark when
we caught the light of the camp-fire, guided
thereto by the shots of Mackenzie, who was pre-
paring to go in search of us when he heard the
report of Ned's rifle, fired in response to the
guide's signal.

Mackenzie's alarm at the storm was serious.
He told us that it was a year almost to a day since

HUNTING AND PROSPECTING 409

he had been caught by just such a storm on that
same Mesa.

"John Burnet was with me," said he, "and we
waited too long to get our horses out and their
bones are somewhere on this Mesa yet. All
we saved then was a hatchet, a blanket, and our
rifles, and we had to make snowshoes to get out
on.

"We couldn't possibly get out in the night,"
said I.

"No, but we ought to start as soon as we can
see in the morning," which we did and that night
slept in the Vallecito valley, at the mouth of a
ravine which led

" 'On and up where Nature's heart
Beat strong among the hills,' "

as Ned quoted to me while we sat by the fire
planning for the coming day.

We began our prospecting work the next day
and rode up the ravine as far as horses could
carry us. Then Ned took one side of the ravine
and I the other, playfully promising Mackenzie

410 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

and Tim that we would keep it clear of grizzlies
while they followed with prospecting hammers
examining the ledges for signs of ore.

"It may not be as funny as you think," said
Mackenzie as we left him and the result proved
his remark to be prophetic.

The ravine was filled with great masses of
broken rock and boulders ten feet in diameter.
As I climbed over and around and slid down them
I became pretty nervous for always I was in a
cut de sac and if I had met a grizzly I should have
been within a few feet of him with more chance of
being killed than of killing. I heard a noise near
me and got a glimpse of a bit of moving fur
between two boulders. It might as well have
been a grizzly instead of the ground hog it proved
to be so far as my excitement was concerned.
But that excitement was quickly displaced by
another which alarmed me intensely. There
came the report of Ned's rifle and I rejoiced in
the thought that he had got a grizzly for I knew
that he would fire at nothing less, but soon came
a second report, at which I was not surprised for

HUNTING AND PROSPECTING 411

it would have been unusual to have finished a
grizzly with a single shot. But the second shot
was followed by others about as fast as they could
be fired until my count told me that Ned had
fired his last shot.

I shouted, but the trouble was too distant for
my voice to carry and no sound came to me. It
was slow work crossing the ravine, though in my
haste I took many chances and fell several times.
The end was a happy one for as I came into the
open I saw Ned leaning against a rock, while
almost at his feet lay the body of a huge silver-
tip, the most savage member of the grizzly fam-

ay.

"Tell me about it, Ned," said I.

"There isn't much to tell, only that when I
came around this rock I saw that grizzly digging
in that little green patch over there. It isn't
more than eighty yards and you know I can put
a bullet just where I want to at that distance."

"Of course you can, but why didn't you?"

"I did, and there is the hole, right behind his
fore shoulder, just where I aimed. Well, he just

412 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

stood up on his hind legs, raked his claws across
his side and roared, 'Where is hef just as plain
as you could say it. Perhaps you don't believe
it?"

"I'll believe anything, Ned, since you've got
the bear to show for it."

"Well, he didn't see me at first but kept turn-
ing his head from side to side until I gave him
another pill. Then he came for me. How he
did come! I emptied my magazine and I don't
believe I wasted a shot, but it took the last one to
stop him."

"Didn't you feel like running away?"

"Never thought of it. Never thought of any-
thing but killing him."

I have found this to have been the experience
of many hunters, as well as my own. Plenty of
nervousness before the critical moment, and even
after the event, but while the battle is on one
thinks only of his rifle and how to put the bullets
where they will do the most good.

While we were talking Mackenzie and Tim
came hurrying toward us for they had heard the

HUNTING AND PROSPECTING 413

shots and their fear had been the same as mine.
We left them to skin the bear while we continued
up the ravine. A mountain sheep showed him-
self far over our heads and several mule deer
started up the ravine ahead of us. We were fol-
lowing them when we came upon a wonderful
outcropping of mineral on the face of a tall,
vertical ledge.

"There is our bonanza!'' exclaimed Ned, and I
was no less enthusiastic for the chase of a mine is
like hunting a bear, and finding it is quite as ex-
citing. We broke off a few samples of ore and
the next day came back with Mackenzie and Tim,
who got out fifty pounds of specimens while we
posted the legal notices of location. Ned wanted
to continue the hunt for a few days, but I wanted
to get back to work and especially was I anxious
to assay the specimens we had taken from our
new discovery.

"Why don't you let Tom or Tim do this rough
work?" asked Ned as we were breaking up in
preparation for an assay the ore we had brought
from the Vallecito.

414 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

"Because I don't want any one but you in the
assay office and I don't want anybody else within
twenty feet of those specimens until I am
through with them. The more you don't trust
any one in a mining camp the fewer will be your
disappointments."

We conducted the assay with much care, aver-
aging the pulp over and over again that we might
be sure of a fair result and when at last the but-
ton was in the cupel and the oxide of lead
evaporating or being absorbed I watched the
operation with intensest interest. Sooner than I
dared to hope, the button brightened.

"It's a hundred ounces to the ton," I exclaimed,
and the balances showed that it was nearly twice
that.

"It's a mine!" shouted Ned.

"It is more than that, but you must keep quiet,
for see, the button is yellow as gold and I don't
believe nitric acid will touch it. My surmise was
right and it took aqua regia to dissolve it, for the
button was nearly pure gold and careful weigh-

HUNTING AND PROSPECTING 415

ing and estimate showed the ore to be worth
nearly three thousand dollars a ton.

"I'll make some more assays of the stuff and
then we'll go back and locate everything in
sight," said I to Ned.

'What's the use of another assay?" he asked.
"You can't be more careful than vou were and
a few dollars more or less make no difference.
What we've got to do is to get back to that gulch
quick as we can and put notices around every
streak of ore we can find in that country before
any one gets suspicious."

We told Mackenzie and Tim that the silver ran
light in the samples, but as they were taken from
the surface we wanted to follow the vein two or
three feet to see if it didn't improve but we didn't
want the other miners to know what we were do-
ing. We added John Burnet, a close-mouthed
miner-hunter, to our party and prepared for
another hunting trip. We started with tent,
rods, rifles, and provisions, and with two lightly
loaded burros. Mackenzie's cabin was near the

416 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

beginning of the Vallecito trail and there we
found sledges, drills, dynamite, and other mining
paraphernalia which we concealed in our packs as
well as possible.

We found other outcroppings of ore than the
one we had sampled and claims were staked out
and notices posted for each one of the party.
Ned and I kept the camp supplied with fish, flesh
and fowl until two burro loads of ore had been
secured.

The talk around the camp-fire each night was
of prospects, mines, and great strikes of rich ore.
Mackenzie was obsessed with the belief that he
knew where the richest ore in the country could
be found. He begged us to give up the good-for-
nothing veins on which we were working and go
with him one day's march to the northeast to a
place ton the mountain not far from Wagon
Wheel Gap where a great strike could be made.
Knowing what the assay had told me about our
own strike, his talk interested me but little. Yet
the place he was talking of was afterwards known

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HUNTING AND PROSPECTING 417

as Creede and three years later Mackenzie made
his millions out of it.

We never returned to the Vallecito to establish,
as we had anticipated, extensive and systematic
work on our wonderful discovery. The assess-
ment work has never been done and the reader
can relocate the mines if he chooses. I devoted a
day to assaying, a day filled with pleasurable ex-
citement and anticipation. The ore from the
different outcroppings and claims had been
labeled and kept separate. It was night when a
dozen cupels with their carefully prepared but-
tons were placed in the glowing muffles. How
my heart beat as the fumes began to rise and my
eyes roved over the buttons, wondering which of
our mines would first proclaim itself a bonanza.
I was alone in the office, for Ned seemed
strangely lacking in interest.

As the buttons shrank without fulguration be-
low the size of the one which had sent us in such
haste to the Vallecito I consoled myself with the
thought that I hadn't really expected so phe-

418 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

nomenal a result again and that plenty of room
was left for proof that we had discovered a great
mine. My heart sank as the seconds passed and
I tasted the bitterness of blasted hopes and for
the first time realized how I had builded upon
them. There was no chance left. There was
only a trace of silver when the last of the litharge
was absorbed.

Ned had got the hunting excursion in the
Vallecito that he wanted at the cost of a filing
from a gold piece that he carried, though it was
days before I recovered sufficiently from my dis-
appointment to speak of it to him.

Of the more than five hundred assays which I
made of our work in the Needles no series of
them were promising enough to justify the advice
that more money should be put into the mines and
the enterprise was dropped for a time. Later it
was taken up by others, notably by William
Windom, Secretary of the Treasury, and al-
though much money was put in I never learned
of any being taken out.

CHAPTER XXII

AN ENCOUNTER WITH A GRIZZLY

"Do you know it's fourteen years since we ran
buffaloes with the Comanches, and three since we
have had a hunt together?" said Quincy Ward to
me as we looked out on a lake in the mountains
that we both loved.

"That isn't my fault. I wanted you to go with
me last year. You could have got a grizzly if
you had gone."

"That was a hunt for mines and I hadn't lost
any, but I've got a chance now for both of us."

"Where is it and what is it?"

"In the Rockies, same as yours last year.
Gen. Rodney Ward has made up a party, good
fellows every one. He's got the most famous old
hunter of the plains, the best possible outfit, camp
to be run on military lines, and everybody sure of
all the game he wants. Will you go?"

419

420 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

"I'll go with you, but not with that crowd,"
said I.

"They are high muck-a-mucks, in with the
Government and every officer at every army post
will stand on his head to give us a good time."

"They'll do that anyhow, and if you and I go
together there will be only two of us to divide the
game. Let's go by ourselves and I'll bet you
now that each one of us gets more game than that
whole crowd put together."

If Ward had taken the bet he would have
lost it, for the big party got almost literally noth-
ing.

We shucked off civilized clothing at Rawlins on
the Union Pacific, where we took a stage coach,
the wheels of which scarcely ceased to roll for two
days and a night when it delivered us at Fort
Washakie. The days were solid with dust and
the night was arctic on that stage, while feeding
places were from two to twenty hours apart with
nothing to eat at any of them. Ward and I had
shared experiences for so many years that little
of the past was left to talk of or listen to. Not

AN ENCOUNTER WITH A GRIZZLY 421

even a holdup could be looked for. The stage
owners had looked out for that by taking all the
currency of the outfit in exchange for transporta-
tion.

But the drivers saved the situation. Thev.
spread before us the corpses of bygone jokes and
unwrapped the mummies of ancient stories. We
were held spellbound by what was left of a driver
with two wooden legs, one hand and a hook. He
thrilled us with his description of the blizzard in
which he lost his way, his limbs, his passengers,
male and female, and the most of himself. His
effective use of the fragment of anatomy remain-
ing to him was a constant marvel to us, yet his
management of reins, whip, and brake, on bad
roads and down sharp descents never interfered
with his duty to his passengers — his duty to enter-
tain them, to thrust his overcoat on one who
chanced to shiver, or to accept cheerfully the
tendered flask of another. He had his fun with
us, as once when he stopped his team at the top of
a really terrifying descent and casually re-
marked, "We lost a coach off that hill last

422 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

month," and Ward and I were seized with a
simultaneous impulse to stretch our legs and view
the scenery from the road.

At Fort Washakie we introduced ourselves to
the officer in command, never doubting that a let-
ter from General Sheridan had preceded and
vouched for us. We were hospitably received
and entertained and the courtesy of the officers
concealed the fact that no letter from the Gen-
eral had been received.

An early ceremony of our reception was tak-
ing us two miles to a hot spring for a bath. The
pool was circular in form, of a depth unknown to
me and about a hundred yards in diameter. It
was entered by a series of steps, each of which was
a new torture, for the water was unendurably hot.
I had not the fortitude to swim many strokes and
in a very few minutes decided that I had been
boiled long enough to remove the accumulations
of even that stage ride.

Through the kindness of our hosts we were
soon properly outfitted with broncos, stores, and
two guides, a Menominee half-breed and the

AN ENCOUNTER WITH A GRIZZLY 423

Crown Prince of the Shoshone Indians, Dick
Washakie.

What a joy was that first day's ride, over the
open prairie to the Wind River! Rabbits and
sage hens galore with an occasional coyote pro-
vided much entertainment with little hazard to
themselves. They were too quick for the rifle
and too distant for the camera. Our supper was
of Wind River trout, which were deplorably ig-
norant of the science of angling and ignoring a
well tied fly rose freely to a big white scarecrow
that would have frightened into fits an educated
Eastern trout.

The country became broken, the river had to be
frequently forded, and it was deep enough to
make me anxious about my sensitive plates, while
deer began to show up and on the second night
we had buck liver for supper. The third day's
ride was along the Bad Lands and we camped
under their wonderful cliffs. Rich in color and
shade, purple, yellow, and red with a dark gray
background, they are worth crossing the conti-
nent to see. One fancies he is gazing upon the

424 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

handiwork of some old Titanic race. Gigantic,
castellated structures with parapets and towers,
huge colonnades and carved entrances, wonder-
ful in regularity, infinite in variety, they border
the river for many miles. Near the junction of
the De Noir and Wind Rivers, an abundance of
ducks brought variety in our bill of fare, and din-
ners of three courses, fish, flesh, and fowl, miti-
gated the hardships of our pioneer life.

Turning westward and climbing the mountain,
we camped on the Continental Divide. Near us
was the tent of some Harvard boys, one of whom
was Owen Wister. They displayed the skins of
three bears as the result of the previous day's
work and said they would get the rest of the fam-
ily the next day. I started out alone for a hunt
the next morning, telling my Indian guide that I
was going to get a bear. I gave this up before
noon and brought home six squirrels which I laid
before Dick, telling him they were bears. It
struck that Indian's sense of humor and after
{ive minutes of meditation he exploded with
laughter. Thereafter whenever he saw a squirrel

AN ENCOUNTER WITH A GRIZZLY 425

he pointed it out with extended finger, exelaimed
"Bear!" and again burst into laughter.

While camping beside our Harvard friends the
group around the camp-fire was increased by the
presence of a stranger of unprepossessing ap-
pearance wTho stuck to us like a burr. He asked
where we were going next and when told the
Snake River valley and the Jackson's Hole coun-
try he said he was going that way himself and
would go with us. As one of the guides of our
Harvard friends told us he had reason to believe
that the man was one of a band of horse thieves
that were operating between us and the Teton
Basin we told him that he could have what pro-
visions he wanted from our larder, but that we
preferred to travel by ourselves. He departed
before we were up the next morning and with
him went all the choice parts of an antelope and
deer which comprised our supply of meat. Our
half-breed wanted to go after the fellow, but we
thought the riddance was cheap.

We camped for a few days in the valley of the
Gros Ventre River, which was full of game.

426 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

Elk and deer were plentiful and antelope always
in sight. On our first day's hunt in the valley
Ward and the Indian took the mountain on the
east bank of the river and the half-breed and I
the one on the west side. We scaled precipices,
floundered through morasses, got tangled up in
windfalls, and saw fifty antelope, a dozen mule
deer, and finally a band of elk in a ravine.
Tethering our broncos, we crept up to the ravine,
when out of it rose directly before me a great bull
elk so near that it was wicked to shoot it with the
rifle which I had ready instead of the camera
which was slung to my shoulder. Thereafter,
excepting when looking for bear, it was the
camera which I kept ready.

Ward came to camp empty-handed, but he had
had more fun than I, for he had jumped a bear,
and although he didn't get him he had had a
lovely break-neck race after him. That night
the half-breed made a spade of wood with which
he dug a pit and built the camp fire over it. He
kept up a big fire through the night and then
shoveled a great mass of coals out of the baked

AN ENCOUNTER WITH A GRIZZLY 427

earth in the morning. Into this he put the un-
skinned elk head, after removing the antlers and
covering it with ashes and coals rebuilt the camp-
fire above it. It was nearly thirty-six hours later
when the fire was raked away and the baked elk
head taken from its earthen oven. If the am-
brosia of the gods was any better food than that
baked elk's head they surely lived high on
Olympus.

One morning we woke to find six inches of
snow on the ground and started out early on an
all day hunt. Ward and the Indian took one
side of the valley and the half-breed and I the
other. I carried my usual luncheon, a big slab
of hoecake in one jacket pocket and a slice of elk
tallow of similar size in the other. I don't
usually choose tallow for lunch at home but when
hunting in the cold of the mountains I have found
it delicious, for then the craving for meat and
especially the fat of it becomes an obsession.

Throughout the day elk were in sight and often
within range of the rifle, but I saw no good
chance of stealing near one with the camera.

428 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

We saw bands of antelope within two hundred
yards, but our larder was overflowing and al-
ready the use of the camera had develoj)ed hu-
manity in me until I couldn't bear to wantonly
kill the beautiful creatures.

It was not until we had turned toward our
camp that we found the signs we were seeking
and crossed the tracks in the snow of several
bears, one of which the half-breed said was the
biggest kind of a silver tip.

"I've come two thousand miles for that grizzly
and I've got to have him!" I exclaimed almost
fiercely to my half-Indian companion.

"You get him," was the sententious reply. I
had already met grizzlies, and at short range, but
the chance to get one had always passed before
I had realized that I had it. Now, the man of
Indian blood, who knew these wonderful
creatures, said that I could get this splendid
specimen and I remembered that killing" a grizzly
had been my youthful ambition, so long ago that
it must have begun in the cradle.

AN ENCOUNTER WITH A GRIZZLY 429

"Shall we follow the trail?" I inquired of my
mentor.

"No good, go forty mile. Kill elk for bait,
then maybe he come back. We get elk there,"
and he pointed out two elk which I had not seen
that were 250 yards distant.

"I can get one of them from here," said I, and
as he shook his head in doubt I slipped to the
ground and a few seconds later one of the elk was
dead. As the other did not run away I fired
again and killed the cow elk, for which I was
doubly ashamed when the half-breed said:

"One was enough."

I did not sleep much that night and the next
day I rode through a driving snowstorm with
the half-breed to inspect the carcasses and found
that two bears had been there, one of them being
the big grizzly I wanted. The half-breed said he
was sure to come back that night and offered to
cut some sticks and make a seat in the branches
of a tree nearby where I could stay all night and
get a shot at the bear when he returned. As it

430 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

took two blankets beside my sleeping bag to keep
me from freezing to death in camp I objected to
roosting all night in a tree in a snowstorm. I
proposed to start from camp early enough to be
on the ground before daylight.

I felt differently in the morning when I was
awakened two hours before dawn. The canvas
of the tent was banked high with snow and before
I was dressed my fingers and feet were as numb
as the stage driver's wooden legs. Ward had no
faith in our success and when I proposed that he
come with us he pulled the flap of his sleeping
bag over his head, saying that he preferred nap
to fur.

A miserable time for me then followed. Our
broncos were across a brook from the camp and I
slipped and fell in the darkness, getting thor-
oughly wet. As we rode, the snow-laden bushes
slapped my face in the darkness and sent part of
their burden down my neck. When we reached
the carcass the grizzly had been there and de-
parted. We started on his trail which was plain
as a wagon road and followed it down ravines

AN ENCOUNTER WITH A GRIZZLY 431

where our ponies had to slide and up precipices
which we had to make detours to surmount.
Sometimes it entered thickets so dense that we
tied the broncos and followed the trail on foot.
In such places there was little snow on the ground
and I was always in doubt whether the great
beast we were following was ahead of us, beside,
or even behind us, and as my companion kept
many yards from me while exploring some of the
thickets I became obsessed with the idea that the
bear was hunting me.

Time passed and the sun became so hot that I
discarded coat and vest whenever I dismounted.
By noon I had become so +ired, discouraged, and
even angry that the feeling of dread with which
I had entered each thicket and relief when I
didn't find the quarry gave place to an intense
anxiety to meet the brute. We were approach-
ing a piece of thick wToods when my pony became
almost unmanageable and as we dismounted the
half-breed whispered to me,

"We've got him!"

I went straight for the dense thicket before me,

432 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

which my companion entered some twenty yards
to my right. It seemed a long time that I
walked and crept and peered about me in the
gloom of the forest, seeing nothing suspicious,
when suddenly — there stood motionless beside me
and not twenty feet distant the giant form of a
wonderful animal.

It had been a fearsome apparition in my
dreams of the previous night, had tinged with
dread the hours of the morning ride, and made
my heart beat painfully at even the thought of
meeting him whenever I had entered the woods
in search of him. It was different now. The
prize was mine and my only fear was of losing it.
I thought long and much in that instant of rais-
ing my rifle. The whole creature was before me
with the lowered head pointed at me. Should I
send a bullet into the eye which I saw or through
the heart which I felt capable of doing? But the
head might suddenly move as I fired and grizzlies
traveled far with bullets near the heart. It
never occurred to me that his travel might be in
my direction, my only thought was that he might

AN ENCOUNTER WITH A GRIZZLY 433

escape. There seemed one sure way to prevent
that — to smash his shoulder so he couldn't travel,
I could attend to the killing later. My rifle was
of .40 caliber and its 260 grain bullet was
driven by 82 grains of powder and there were
reserves in the magazine.

There wasn't a doubt left in my mind and the
bullet struck the grizzly within a hair's breadth of
the point I had selected. With his shoulder
broken the crippled monster turned away from
me as he sought to escape. A second bullet tore
through his body and then he turned and rising
upon his hind legs threw himself toward me. As
he sprang I fired again and the third bullet en-
tered his chest and penetrated his heart. The
great grizzly lay dead before me and I could hear
the beating of my heart !

Removing the skin and skull was a big job and
levers had to be cut to roll the body over for skin-
ning. It was night when the work was done and
after that an hour was wasted in persuading my
bronco to allow my trophy to lie across his body.
This had to be done for nothing must be omitted

434 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

which could add to the triumph of my return to
camp.

It added to my rejoicing that I found Owen
Wister's Harvard party at our camp on my re-
turn. It was the first of the Western trips in
which he collected material for his splendid novel,
"The Virginian."

We camped beside one another a number of
times and his genial personality so pleasantly
impressed me that I was glad to continue through
correspondence the friendship begun on the crest
of the continent. His last letter to me was from
Paris and contained this gem: —

"It is pleasant in Paris, but I have not forgot-
ten those days in the mountains and on the plains
and I often think, 'Better fifty years of sage
brush than a cycle of cafe' "

Ward's ambition was fired by my success and
we scattered elk bait the country round, while he
followed bear trails through the snow and wher-
ever the Indian could lead him for davs at a time
in vain. Fate seemed to sport with him for one
day when we had hunted together until both of

AN ENCOUNTER WITH A GRIZZLY 435

us were tired and were resting under a pinon tree
before starting for camp, I challenged him to ex-
plore on foot with me a bit of promising-looking
heavy forest before returning.

"If there was a chance in a million I'd go witli
vou, but there isn't a bear within ten miles. You
can tramp till you're tired and I'll wait here and
eat pinon nuts."

I hunted very slowly, stopping five minutes
at every fifty yards of advance. During one
such wait and while I was yet within two hundred
yards of my friend a black bear walked slowly
past within twenty yards of me. I counted him
as my bear, but for the first, and last, time in my
life the hammer of my rifle fell on an already
exploded cartridge. Gone was the bear plung-
ing through the woods, while I churned a car-
tridge from the magazine to the barrel of my
Winchester, my soul filled to the depths witli
chagrin and humiliation. I caught one glimpse
of Bruin and sent a bullet that flew wildly his
way.

Then I gave him up, but gazed steadily for the

436 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

chance that Fate might grant me. It came as at a
distance of two hundred yards. A slow-moving
black body climbed over the trunk of a fallen
tree. My aim was quick, careful, and measured
for the distance, but I felt that little short of a
miracle could help me and as the bear passed on,
it was the merest chance that induced me to walk
to the tree the bear had crossed to see if per-
chance my bullet had struck it. Lying on the
tree was a piece of a bone and leading from it was
a trail of blood which led to a nearby thicket
where lay the body of the bear.

Most camps in the telling are alike, in the liv-
ing all are different. Each of our thirty camps
on this trip from Camp Tenderfoot to Camp
Farewell had some special association which
memory brings back to me. Often the name of a
camp tells its story. Antelope Camp stands for
the day when we saw more than a hundred and
shot several of these creatures. During our stay
at Camp Elk we saw three hundred of these big
deer, shot nearly a dozen, and photographed as
many. Camp Grizzly was worthy of its name

AN ENCOUNTER WITH A GRIZZLY 437

because of the single one I killed while there,
while Camp Moose was so-called because of the
photograph of a moose that I took so late in the
day that I couldn't develop it.

There were Camps Shoshone whenever we
camped with a hunting party of that tribe, many
of which were out for game and pinon nuts.
Other camps were of The Three Tetons and
Camp Trout, Camps Cliff Dwellers and Conti-
nental Divide, Snake River and Smoky Water,
Cottonwood and Cottontail, Bear, Beaver, and
Buffalo Forks. Near the latter camp we saw
geese, swan, ducks, and snipe as well as Rocky
Mountain and ruffed grouse, while a picture I
took of that camp wrould classify me as a game
hog to-day.

We visited the Yellowstone Park as tourists
with unloaded guns and our experiences, like the
photographs I took, were conventional. When
we came out of the Park we were starved for
meat and could have eaten a tourist raw. A few
hours of hunting brought us no game and it was
nearing night when we saw the smoke of a camp-

438 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

fire. We hastened to the camp and found it be-
longed to two Philadelphians, Charles B. Pen-
rose and D. M. Barringer. We told them we
were starving and they loaded us down writh bear,
deer, and antelope. They were ideal sportsmen,
for they guided themselves and ran their own
camps without help. Their specialty was bear
and I recall that we agreed that the bear was a
timid creature that always ran when he had a
chance and that the only danger in hunting him
was that of not being able to find him. Half a
lifetime later Mr. Penrose was carried out of the
mountains so seriously wounded by a grizzly that
for days his life hung in the balance.

CHAPTER XXIII

PHOTOGRAPHING WILD LIFE

My first lens was a pinhole, my first camera a
converted cigar box. Soon I graduated to a
lens taken from a toy magic lantern and a home-
made camera and slides. Then came a cast-off
wet plate outfit. My principal victims were my
family. Julian was a baby then, but he earned a
princely income by posing for me at a cent a sit.
He had his own ideas of art even then and after I
had placed him he usually insisted on introduc-
ing his toys to give a human interest to the pic-
ture.

It was late in the seventies when the introduc-
tion of the dry plate made it practicable to go
afield for subjects and it was then that the
thought of photographing wild life came to me.
I began this work at my cabin home in Peeka-
mose, but the shutter for fast work had not then

439

440 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

been invented and the blurred results I obtained
in the little time I could devote to the work held
little of promise for the future. From 1884 I
had more time for the work and mv collection of
pictures began to possess interest. There was a
woodchuck and a weasel, a pole cat and a par-
tridge, a flying squirrel caught in the air, and a
humming bird feeding her young, as well as pic-
tures of others as they poised over flowers.
There were fair pictures of red and ground squir-
rels and of several kinds of birds, and a specially
fine one of an eagle swooping down for his prey,
that quite filled the five by eight plate. That we
had caught the eagle when wounded and tamed it
and that the prey on which it swooped was a
chicken leg takes it out of the class of wild life
photography, but it made a pretty picture.

In 1886 during some months of my stay in the
Rocky Mountains I spent some time seeking to
photograph its wild life. I pictured ptarmigan
from a distance of ten feet, but their protective
coloring made their outlines indistinct. Rocky
Mountain grouse and camp robbers I got at short

PHOTOGRAPHING WILD LIFE 441

range and a mule deer came out fairly well, but a
mountain sheep was so distant that he showed as
a speck on the plate and two huge grizzlies that
I tried to take as they reached the top of a cliff
didn't show up on the plate when developed.

In 1887 I began photographing wild life in
earnest. In the winter and spring I exposed
several hundred 5x8 plates in the Florida wilds
and on the west coast. I pictured birds of many
kinds, on their nests and in flocks, soaring in the
air like osprey and man-o'-war hawks, diving for
their prey like pelicans, or stalking it in the shal-
lows like the great white heron. The roll of the
porpoise, or dolphin, and the head of loggerhead
and green turtle as they came to the surface to
breathe were caught by the camera. The cotton
mouth coiled among the mangroves as well as the
slow-growing oysters on their branches became
food for the camera. The leap of the tarpon, the
struggles of the stricken sawfish, and the wing
tips of the sportive devil fish as they played above
the surface were reproduced on the sensitive
plate.

442 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

With an old alligator hunter I traversed the
Big Cypress Swamp in search of game for the
camera. Memory has kept for me the date,
March 13, 1887, when I crept to the border of a
jungle-surrounded pond of a hundred yards in
diameter. Its surface was dotted with the eyes
or covered with the heads and bodies of scores of
alligators. As I close my own eyes to-day my
mental picture is vivid of that weird little pond
overhung with strange growths and its surface
covered with reptilian monsters whose eyes were
all turned upon me. It was a wonderful chance
and I staged the scene as if for a motion picture.

I fixed and focussed the camera and taking its
bulb in my teeth and my rifle in my hand called
on my Cracker guide. Most of the alligators had
sunk out of sight, but as the hunter imitated the
whine of a puppy they came to the surface and
began to swim slowly toward me. When the
water was well covered with their heads I sent a
bullet through the brain of the nearest one and as
he threw his body half out of water I pressed the
bulb of the camera with my teeth. The plate

PHOTOGRAPHING WILD LIFE 443

developed well and the prints from it show the
wounded 'gator partly in the air and seventy-
three living alligators in whole or in part on the
water.

It isn't all beer^and skittles in a mangrove
swamp for it is sometimes over warm and I have
met mosquitoes there. It was in such a place one
day that I found it necessary to refill my plate
holders. I improvised a dark room by lying
down on the marshy ground and being covered
as to head and body by a blanket and such gar-
ments as could be spared for the purpose of shut-
ting out such light as found its way even into the
dark recesses of the swamp. The light didn't
get in, but the mosquitoes did, a few million of
them, and a too-thick plate refused to go into the
plate holder and broke in my hand, cutting it
badly. Thereafter I had an enjoyable quarter
of an hour, with blood flowing from my hand and
sweat pouring from my face, none of which must
touch a plate. Then in half-suffocation I be-
came confused as to what plates had been ex-
posed and what had not.

444 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

It was during this year, 1887, that I publicly
advocated and seriously began the practice of
substituting the camera for the rifle, excepting
strictly for the needs of subsistence, in all hunting
excursions. Of these needs I took far too liberal
a view as this story has shown, but the impera-
tive necessity of the conservation of the wild life
of the country had not then appeared.

During my stay in the Rocky Mountains with
Ward, my half-breed guide was made to under-
stand that the camera was my chosen weapon.
Thereafter he brought marvelous skill to its
service. He knew the destination of the distant
herd and placed me in its path. He showed me
creatures that I wouldn't have found and some-
times found it hard to see even after he had
pointed them out. He took me within long
camera range of that shyest of creatures, the ante-
lope, enabled me to picture a pine marten,
brought me within range of a band of elk, and
crowned his work by helping me to a camera shot
at beavers on their dam. And yet the distances
were usually too great. To the rifleman a bull

PHOTOGRAPHING WILD LIFE 445

elk at fifty yards bulks big, to the camera man he
is too tiny.

Once as we peered over the crest of a little roll
of the ground he pointed out a little group of
antelope unconscious of our presence and feeding
near a little knoll a hundred yards distant. I
told him they were too far away but pointed to a
little ravine through which I could approach
them without being seen. He motioned for me
to try it alone which I did. Leatherstocking
himself couldn't have crept up on those antelope
more silently than did I, but when I reached the
knoll the creatures I sought were still grazing un-
conscious of my presence but still a hundred
yards distant by another knoll. Once more I fol-
lowed them with the same result and if I hadn't
left my rifle with my guide I fear I should have
broken my own rule of conduct. Yet through
failure as well as success I persisted and on two
days felt that my reward was great.

I was hunting with the Indian when we
jumped a black bear which I wounded and
brought to bay. As it faced us with threatening

446 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

growls the Indian wanted me to fire again but the
chance for the camera was too good to be lost. I
handed the Indian my rifle and told him to kill
the bear if it jumped at me. Then I carried my
camera within ten feet of the fiercely growling
creature and took a picture of it which proved
more than satisfactory. The date was Septem-
ber 7, 1887, and I mention it because I believe
that my photographs of this year, excepting a
little work of my own to which I have referred,
are the first taken of the creatures of the wild in
their native haunts.

Three days later I had another success. I
heard the whistling of a bull elk across a ravine
near our camp and with camera and rifle went in
search of him. It was a terrible climb both down
and up the walls of the ravine. Camera and rifle
were slung to my shoulders for I needed both
hands in the climb. It was the work of hours to
reach the farther side and often I nearly gave it
up. Resting in a thicket till my heart beats were
normal I crawled to within a hundred yards of a
band of elk that numbered over fifty. Nearest

PHOTOGRAPHING WILD LIFE 447

»

of all to me was the great bull I was seeking.
There was plenty of cover, but I dragged myself
forward and crept as carefully as if there were
none. The creature I wanted was grazing on
the border of a little open glade and whenever he
lifted his head I shrank into the earth.

At last I was within twenty yards of him with
nothing between us excepting a single bush some
six yards from me. Waiting till the elk's head
was down and leaving my rifle while holding my
camera ready, I stepped quickly to the bush and
standing beside it took my camera shot from a
distance of fortv feet. With the click of the
shutter the elk raised his head but so slow to start
away was he that I was sorry I hadn't walked ten
feet nearer before pressing the bulb. I was less
careful about crossing the ravine on my return
and losing my footing fell about twenty feet,
bruising myself and breaking my camera, but
happily not beyond repair. Fortunately the
plate holder was uninjured.

On this Rocky Mountain trip I met Edward
Hofer, a guide who was especially familiar with

448 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

the country about the Yellowstone. He showed
much interest in my camera work and spoke of
the great opportunities in that direction which
came his way. This is Part I of the story.

On the 8th of April, 1890, I was hunting with
the camera on the mainland southeast of Marco
in Florida. We were near the Royal Palm
Hammock, which my companion had never seen,
but were separated from it by a stream of water.
We discovered a skiff on the bank which had pre-
sumably been left there by hunters. We com-
mandeered that skiff and I left a card pinned to
a tree stating that I had borrowed the skiff and
would return it within an hour. It was several
hours before we got back to find two justly indig-
nant men sitting on the bank waiting for us.
The anger of one of them melted away as he re-
minded me that he was Edward Hofer, erstwhile
a Rocky Mountain guide, but now piloting Mr.
Andrews through the Ten Thousand Islands of
Florida. Again he was interested in my work as
I told him of flash-light photographs of alligators

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PHOTOGRAPHING WILD LIFE 449

which I had taken only the night before, on the
7th of April. This is Part II of the story.

On September 12th, 1893, I entered the
Hunter's Cabin of the Chicago Exposition,
where a hunter was exhibiting photographs of
wild animals. He was addressing a group of
visitors and as I approached him he said:

"I was the first to take photographs of wild
animals in their native surroundings," then paus-
ing a moment and extending his hand toward me
he continued, "excepting that man whom I met
years ago in the Rockies and again in Florida
engaged in the same work." This is Part III of
the story.

In 1888 I was fishing for some weeks with
Joseph Jefferson on the Miramichi and I held my
camera ready for many an hour, hoping for a pic-
ture of a leaping salmon with Jefferson on the
plate if possible. My patience would have
lasted longer but for the insects which were blood-
thirsty and remorseless. Black flies, mosquitoes,
and sand flies, each one was worse than the others.

450 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

Jefferson won a wager of me by betting that I
couldn't continue casting for salmon for five
minutes without wiping the insects from face or
hands. In half the time I was tortured beyond
my power of resistance. But though I caught no
salmon with my camera and few with my rod,
there remains to me the memory of long and de-
lightful evenings running well into the night
when I listened to the gentle philosophy and the
quiet humor of a most lovable man. When I
tried to picture members of his family he said to
me:

"Catch 'em when they're not looking," and in
that sentence condensed half the philosophy of
camera portraiture.

I tried to group his family about a rock for a
picture and each effort of mine made matters
worse, but a fraction of a minute of his work pro-
duced an ideal grouping. Later I spoke to him
of the natural way in which the children tumbled
about him on the stage in his Rip Van Winkle
play.

"The more natural thev looked the more

PHOTOGRAPHING WILD LIFE 451

studied they were," was his reply, and then he
told of the infinite pains he had taken with even
the least of their attitudes and actions.

Even the most conscientious work is not al-
ways appreciated and an English editor who once
misjudged me could never be convinced of his
error. I was out in my skiff with my boatman,
carrying harpoon and camera. We were off
Gasparilla Pass in the Gulf of Mexico and I was
standing in the bow of the skiff with my harpoon
while the boatman sculled. A small sloop that
was passing was struck by a squall, capsized, and
sunk. Only the top of the mast showed and as
it swayed in the water the owner of the craft
clung to it. He shouted to us for help and I
paddled fiercely with my harpoon to get near him.
My boatman was too leisurely in his motions and
I called to him:

"Hurry up there, hurry up!"

"There isn't any hurry, we'll be there in time
to save him," was the calm reply.

" 'Save him!' " I yelled. "I don't want to save
him, I want to photograph him!"

452 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

I took five pictures of the man before we res-
cued him. One of the prints of these I sent
to my friend Edward L, Wilson of Wilson's
Photographic Magazine, who sent it to an Eng-
lish magazine which reproduced it and char-
acterized it as an illustration of American in-
humanity. I couldn't rest under this aspersion
and wrote in my own defence to the editor. I
explained that I had no thought of imperiling the
wrecked man's life, that the water was warm and
he couldn't take cold, and that although there
were big sharks around, vet I was there with mv
harpoon and if a shark had got the man I would
certainly have got him back.

In 1889 Edward L. Wilson suggested that I
supplement my fugitive articles advocating the
camera as a sportsman's weapon by something
that should be published between covers and thus
constitute a record. I wrote for him "Camera
vs. Rifle" which was published in Mosaics for
1890 and was, I believe, the first article of its
kind to be published. In the article I made use
of many of the incidents referred to herein.

PHOTOGRAPHING WILD LIFE 453

Later I have written much on the subject for
many magazines and a few books and always my
heart grows warmer toward the beautiful children
of the wild as I remember the confidence they
have shown in response to a little friendliness of
mine.

There was the great eagle that swooped down
from the distant crag at my call, the little tern
that left her flock to perch on my finger, the
manjr birds that fed from my hand, the mink
that came fearlessly to my feet, and the wild
rabbit that took the crumbs as I dropped them
from my breakfast in camp. I like to forget
the brutal bags of game I made in the long ago,
but the thought of each camera shot brings
pleasure. The life history of birds and animals
as pictured by the camera contrast curiously with
the game bag product of the fowling piece and
the bloody trophies of the rifle. One represents
conservation and construction, the other destruc-
tion alone. I look upon my own little efforts
with the camera as belonging to the twentieth
century, and upon those days of slaughter of bird

454 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

or beast as representing my inheritance from the
Cave Dweller.

I continued taking photographs of the crea-
tures of the wild in Canada, New Brunswick, and
many parts of the United States, especially in
Florida, until the frequent companion of my trips,
my son Julian, began to do so much better work
than I that I laid the camera aside and tried
to make pictures with my pen. Then came the
burning of my house one winter's night, leaving
a mass of molten glass to represent 10,000 nega-
tives, 1200 lantern slides, and all the parapher-
nalia of photograph making and picture projec-
tion. With them had gone the trophies, memen-
toes, curiosities, and collections of a lifetime.
I drew on my philosophy to bear it and the
philosophy came. Only "things" had gone.
The best of life could not be taken from me.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE HAPPY VALLEY

Very literally were the bridges now burned
behind me and a new life opened. I could sing
with Browning:

"Grow old along with me !

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made:"

The last chapter was to be the best of all. It
began with long trips with Julian, who was in
the photographic game while I knew many fruit-
ful fields for that work. We were interested in
the dependent peoples and we visited, studied,
and pictured them, from the Navajo, the Hopi
or Moqui, and other Pueblo Indians to the
Seminoles; and from the latest importations at
Ellis Island to the descendants of the victims of
the last slave trade shipment to the Sea Islands
of South Carolina. We were friends of the

456 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

creatures of the wild and worked for their con-
servation through all available channels. We
spent a week with a colony of birds that could
be counted by the hundred thousand until many
repaid our friendliness with fearlessness. We
captured manatees for the New York Aquarium
and caught crocodiles and pelicans for the Zoo.
It was chance that brought the shipment of
the manatees, or sea cows. I had looked for
them during twenty years without finding one.
Then it chanced that I struck a strange creature
with my light harpoon, just off of Madeira Ham-
mock. It proved to be my long-sought manatee,
eleven feet long and of massive proportions. We
were swamped four times while working him into
shallow water, where we went overboard with him
and handled him until he was unafraid. We
made a harness of rope and leaving him fastened
to an anchor by a two hundred foot line, in a
pasture of manatee grass, sailed for Miami and a
telegraph office. I gave the manatee to my
friends of the Zoo and of the Aquarium by wire
and with great difficulty secured official permis-

"In the winter they coast and wallow through the drifts,
or follow the tracks of wild animals on skis or snowshcx s.,s

Pa '■

THE HAPPY VALLEY 457

sion to ship the creature. But when I returned
to where I had left my prize I found that he had
broken his bonds and shipped himself to parts un-
known. Returning to Miami I wired my
apologies and the promise to find another manatee
if it took me a year, which it did.

During that year I must have discovered and
explored every manatee haunt in the waters
between the Gulf of Mexico and the Everglades.
I felt that I knew every family of the creatures
and was intimate enough with them to call their
children by their first names. I pursued them
with nets of several kinds, nets that were set in
their homes, that were run around them as they
swam, and nets that were fitted with a great
iron ring to put over them after they had been
chased to exhaustion by a little motor boat. We
caught a number of the creatures of varying
lengths from fourteen feet to four and got two of
them safely to the Aquarium. The largest one
died in his tank just as he was ready for ship-
ment and the others were turned loose after the
camera man's purpose had been served.

458 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

A letter from Dr. Hornadav of the Zoo was
the cause of our dispelling several local myths.
Old Mose, an alligator twelve and one-half feet
long, was the patriarch of the reptile colony at
the Zoo. He had a rival in a younger alligator
of great ambition but hopelessly deficient in
length, being twelve inches shorter than the mam-
moth Moses. It occurred to the lesser reptile
that if he couldn't rise to the height of the great
lawgiver of his race he might pull the patriarch
down to his own level and he bit off eighteen
inches of the tail of the venerable Moses. The
long-time ruler of the reptile house fell to the
second place, his haughty spirit could not brook
the disgrace, and he died, full of years and bit-
terness.

Dr. Hornaday suggested that the Zoo would
like to fill the place of the lamented Moses with
something of similar length, say not less than
twelve feet. I had myself killed an alligator of
fourteen feet and four inches and had heard local
rumors that two or three 'gators of similar
length were still living. As I followed up the

THE HAPPY VALLEY 459

rumors they grew definite and I found men ready
to swear to the length and locality of "Old John"
and "Big Ben." The sponsor for Old John
had seen the reptile on his bed and had carefully
measured the place with the barrel of his rifle,
but was not quite sure of the length of the rifle
barrel and was distinctly hazy about his method
of establishing the exact place which the alligator
occupied on his bed. The alligator was found
but proved to be less than eleven feet long. Big
Ben became more of a myth as we pursued him
and finally resolved himself into a tradition which
probably had its origin in the ark. One fresh
trail led to an Indian who confirmed it, —

"Alpate (alligator) chobee (big) may be so
fourteen, ten feet."

The Seminole found that saurian for us, but it
wasn't worth taking and he killed it for its hide.

We canoed and camped, fished and photo-
graphed for years, Julian and I. He carried the
camera and always wanted human interest in his
pictures which usually I furnished. When a
hooked tarpon, or a harpooned porpoise wrecked

460 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

my canoe and we were struggling together in
the water, he worked like mad with his plates,
and rescued me when he had time. There isn't
any real danger in clinging to the flipper of a
thousand-pound manatee while he slings you
around in the water, but it makes an unusual
picture, quite irresistible to a magazine man.

The first editor who saw the illustrations
wanted them and then the question of copy was
put up to us. Right then our magazine mistakes
began. We had a lot of material and we tried
to get it all into the first article. The result was
neither fish, flesh, nor fowl. The whole maga-
zine office was turned loose upon it. It was
carved horizontally, diagonally, and vertically.
Finally the office boy ran it through a meat-
chopper. I gave up reading the proof of the
thing when I came to where a flying devil-fish
was paddling a canoe among a herd of frigate
pelicans and a broken- winged crocodile thrust
his saw through the bottom of the craft while
the camera man shouted, "More action, please!"

We wasted a lot of material in those days but

THE HAPPY VALLEY 461

we learned something. I blue-pencilled my own
manuscripts freely and thus saved the editor a
lot of trouble, while the camera man sent in fewer
but more carefully selected illustrations. He
mounted these on heavy cardboard as effectively
as possible with appropriate captions taken from
the manuscript. The result was a heavy package
calling for a lot of stamps for transmission and
return. This wras not altogether an evil for I
suspect that many of our offerings were accepted
because the editor couldn't make up his mind to
let so many stamps get away. Team work gave
us a double chance. If the illustrations happened
to strike the art editor favorably he bullied the
literary man into O.K.-ing the manuscript, and
I have even known a kindly editor to persuade
his associate to accept illustrations which the
camera man had assured me were too bum to send
out.

Sometimes we think we know a lot about
editors and magazines and then wTe know that
we don't. One magazine never changes even a
comma in the copy. Another waits till the page

462 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

proofs are made before fitting in the illustrations.
This is done by a boy with shears, who cuts
chunks out of the print to make room for the
pictures. One publication looks upon the text
as a necessary evil and doesn't care if it goes in
upside down, but spreads itself upon the illustra-
tions.

The illustrated magazines containing our work
are published from New York to New Zealand
and include the best known of New York and
London, while the published articles run into the
hundreds. Sometimes we receive a foreign mag-
azine containing a story of ours in a language
which we cannot read and although the sensation
is queer it is not unpleasant.

An unearned increment comes to writer and
illustrator in the genial atmosphere of the maga-
zine office and the charming, sometimes spicy,
correspondence with the wielder of the blue
pencil.

Not the least of the pleasures of writing is
that it can be conducted amid surroundings far
removed from the fevered atmosphere of the Ex-

THE HAPPY VALLEY 463

changes and the keen rivalry in the marts of
trade. In the quiet of my simple home, twenty
miles from a railroad and half that from a tele-
phone, with a dozen neighbors in as many miles,
peace has come to dwell. The successes and the
failures of the past have only an impersonal in-
terest. The snow sometimes drifts deeply in our
valley and there are days when we walk out only
on skis or snowshoes and when even the mail can-
not enter, but our living room is always bright
with the light of many windows and warm with
the blazing of logs on the hearth. Then I write
before a vista of ice-bound brook and snow-
covered mountain, luminous in the winter's sun.
Our friends, who are always our chief est joy,
know that the latchstring is always out to them, —

"Welcome ever smiles,
And farewell goes out sighing."

There are men in the stress of life, seeking the
peace of the valley, coming for friendship's sake
and the rest they are sure to find. They are free
to dream by the fireside, to climb the rocky
cliffs, explore the caves, wander through the

464 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

nearby woods — without a gun — or follow with
basket and rod the famous old trout-stream to
our farthest boundary. They find health and
pleasure in the quest as did Charles Dudley War-
ner, many years ago, when after half a day on
our stream, in reply to my question:

"How many trout did you catch?" he answered,
"I saw the loveliest trout scenery in the world!"

"But how many trout have you in your basket,
Mr. Warner?"

"I made some of the prettiest casts you ever

saw."

For our trout are educated and coy to a de-
gree that frequently baffles my most wary
approach, but they are a joy to me when they
cast supercilious glances on the lures of my
magazine friends and those who edit sporting
columns telling how trout should be taken. Yet
there are those who can write of trout and catch
them, like that dean of dry-fly fishermen, Emlyn
Gill, or La Branche of the "Dry-Fly and Fast
Water" who knows all that the trout knows
about himself and then some.

Photograph by Kent Bromley

Sylvia's Rock, high above the Happy Valley and pointing
toward Mt. Peekamose.

THE HAPPY VALLEY 465

The privacy of which once we were proud has
been invaded by the automobile, but we have for-
given it since it makes easier the coming of our
friends. There are red letter days which bring
to our home men such as Gifford Pinchot with
his genius for friendship and a heart that
beats for humanity, or William T. Hornaday,
apostle of the conservation of wild life, always
ready to spend and be spent for the cause.
To name all the lovers of the outdoors who
are welcome would make this chapter sugges-
tive of a catalogue of the Camp-Fire Club of
America.

While reading the proof of this book I had a
visit from a well known man who was a clerk in
my office fifty years ago, and as he read the story
of those exciting days he gleefully reminded me
of many amusing or striking incidents which had
passed from my memory. Recently the car of
a tourist among our beautiful mountains stopped
at my door and I looked in the face of a man
who gazed silently and inquiringly at me until
a quizzical expression in his eye bridged the

466 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

chasm of nearly half a century and enabled me
to call him by name.

A few days ago a hardy automobilist who had
driven the car containing his wife and himself
over the impossible Gulf Road between the
Ashokan Dam and Peekamose, paused at my
home to inquire where a starving pilgrim might
find food. I suggested a twenty-mile run to the
Yama Farms Inn where my friend Frank Sea-
man entertains tramps at a hundred dollars a
minute. In the chat that followed I learned of
adventures of my new friends among the Indians
on the Arizona plains, with which I was familiar.
I was keeping bachelor's hall for a week, but I
divided my luncheon into three parts and there-
after showed my guests photographs of Indians
and scenes which were familiar to them, includ-
ing the very place on the Little Colorado River
where the quicksands had caught them. They
made the afternoon memorable to me and a few
days later the mail brought me a copy of "Star
Glow and Song" with an inscription that places
it among my treasures :

THE HAPPY VALLEY 467

"To A. W. Dimock:

"Under the old custom, a wandering minstrel
who had been welcomed to the table of the Lord
of the Demesne made his acknowledgment in
song.

"Let the twentieth century revive the grace of
the twelfth, and accept these 'measures' in token
of remembrance of your hospitality which was
unmeasured.

"Charles Buxton Going."

Often a gay party on a Peekamose picnic bent
stops long enough for one of their number to
present the compliments of his father, an old
Wall Street friend of mine, and only the other
day an attractive young woman touring with a
party on horseback called me by name and re-
minded me that I used to know her grandfather,
Robert B. Roosevelt. If that sort of thing goes
any farther, I shall proclaim myself a philoso-
pher and a patriarch.

Often our door swings wide to give joyful en-
trance to a bunch of young nephews and nieces.
In the winter thev coast and flounder through

468 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS

the drifts, or follow the tracks of wild animals
on skis or snowshoes. In the long evenings there
is music and dancing, or reading aloud before
the blazing logs. Cosy suppers are cooked over
the coals with occasional popping of corn and
cracking of nuts. Apples and cheese, crackers
and cider always appear before taps are sounded.

In the summer they climb the mountain to
camp on its summit or wander with rods along the
brook to our beautiful Blue Hole, broiling their
trout at dusk on its rocky ledge.

"It is forty years since I last saw the Blue
Hole," said John Burroughs not long ago, "but
I can go through the woods straight to it to-day,"
and he did. He called the pool the loveliest spot
in the Catskills and Elaine Goodale Eastman
after a recent visit paid it this poetic tribute:

"Wild Nature's gem of changeful luster bright,

Now turquoise pure, now shadowy malachite,
From its rude setting gleams with elfin light.

Say rather, as the inner vision clears,

A well of dreams, a bowl of happy tears
Reflecting heaven — the mirror of the years!

THE HAPPY VALLEY 469

How oft in pensive or in prayerful mood,

My fancy turns to that high solitude,
Above its mystic blue-green depths to brood.

And as the lonely crag above it towers,

Its hoar brow chapleted with autumn flowers,
So memory wreathes those unforgotten hours !"

The murmur of the stream is in my ear as I
write, the towering cliff on its farther side holds
my eyes, while at this instant a humming bird
hovers among the flowering vines outside the
opened window. Now my gaze wanders west-
ward across the lawn, above the green of the near-
by forest, to the bluish summit of the mountain
beyond, and I realize why our friends exclaim
with one voice:

"No wonder you call it 'the Happy Valley P
Few of them know that we never so christened
it, for it named itself. The words rose to the
lips of so many that we came to feel that the
name belonged, and so it stayed. The Spirit
of the Valley gives to those who seek it the
serenity of sages and the hearts of little children.

INDEX

Alcott, W. P., 24
Allen, Hon. Thomas, 141
Alley, Hon. John B., 346
Am. Fire Ins. Co., 32, 47, 49
Am. Rapid Tel. Co., 351
Andover, 22, 23, 25, 27, 33,

249
Andrews, 448
Apaches, 273, 294
Arapahoes, 249, 294
Arizona, 285, 286
Asatowit, 275
Atlantic Mail S. S. Co., 148,

149, 151, 152, 156, 157,

167, 168, 183, 184, 185, 200,

201, 219, 223

Bad Lands, 423

Baez, 197

Balloon, astray, 244

Baltimore & Ohio R. R., 336,
345

Baltimore & Ohio Tel. Co.,
337

Bankers & Merchants Tel. Co.,
343, 346, 349, 350, 356, 358,
360, 361

Bank of British North Amer-
ica, 157

Bank of New York, 110, 115,
185

Banks, Gen. N. P., 227

Baring Brothers & Co., 74

Barnum, Gen. H. A., 328

Barringer, D. M., 438

Bartlett, 346

Baylis, A. B., 75

Beecher, Fred., 249

Henry Ward, 57 et seq.

Mrs. H. W., 59, 208, 212
Beecher's Island, 21s
Bell, Alexander Graham, 352,

353
Bienville, 222
Big Cypress Swamp, 442
Big Tree, 272 et seq.
Black Beaver, 281

Friday, 105, 178, 181, 183,
332

Horse, 282
Blaine, James G., 227
Blue Hole, 468

Board of Trade Tel. Co., 350
Boston Street Railways, 143
Brice, Calvin S., 350, 351
Brinton Rifle Range, 341
Brisbane, Albert, 331
Broadwell, M. M., 69, 70
Brvant, Wm. Cullen, 207
Buffalo, Good, 275
Bureau, 296
Burnet, John, 409, 415
Burroughs, John, 208, 468
Butler, Benj. John, 236, 35 J

Caddo, 239, 242, 243
Camp Fire Club, b>5
Camps in the Rockies, 436, 4.57
Capital of X. J., moving it,

170, 171
Castle, Tarrvtown, 1 1 1, 145,

147, 151, 166, 16?
Catawba, The, 189, 191, 197
Catskills, 385. 1 B
Charlick, Oliver, 301, 308
Chase, Salmon P., 198

471

472

INDEX

Cheyennes, 248, 294, 295, 296
Chicago, 237, 238
Chippewas, 307
Church, Frank P., 207

Col. Wm, C, 338
City Bank of N. Y., 45
City Bank of London, 74
Claflin, Horace B., 160
Clary, Dr., 279
Clemah, 293
Cleveland, Grover, 221, 222

Lewis, 221
Columbian College, 209
Court of Appeals, 365
Comanches, 244, 249, 250, 261,

264, 266, 272, 273, 278, 280

et seq., 292, 294, 307, 419
Conant, S. S., 207
Congress, 129
Conklin, Roscoe, 225, 229, 230,

231, 352
Cook, Flavius Josephus, 24, 25,

26
Cooke, Jay, 232
Corse, Gen. John M., 328, 329
Creede, 417
Creedmoor, 338
Crescent City, 216, 217, 218
Croker, Richard, 365
Curtis, Capt. L. B., 213, 216
Cutting, Robert L., 75

Dana, Charles A., 224, 325
Davidson, Gen. J. W., 243, 245,

274
Miss, 243
Davis, Gov., 272, 274, 277
Devereux, John H., 332, 333
Dimock, Julian A., 286, 439,

455, 459
Downer, F. W., 48, 53
Drawbaugh, Daniel, 352, 353
Drew, Daniel, 77
Drexel, Winthrop & Co., 97,

120
Dunn, Lee S. & Co., 114

Eagle, The, 223

Earle, Geo. H., Jr., 368

Eastman, Elaine Goodale, 468

Eckert, Gen. T. T., 361

Edison, Thomas A., 339

Elizabeth, N. J., 166, 167, 169,
170, 171, 175, 194, 197, 327,
332

Ellis Island, 455

Elm Springs, 244

Equitable Life Assurance So-
ciety, 72

Erie Railway, 181, 182

Erie & Ontario, 186

Estrella, 199

Express Trust, 374, 375

Fifth Avenue branch, 335
Fifth Avenue Hotel, 156
Finance Co., Philadelphia, 367
Fisk & Belden, 183
Fisk & Gould, 105, 176, 177,

180, 332
Fisk & Hatch, 120, 145
Fisk, James, 177, 178
Fitchburg, 21

Forsythe, Gen. Geo. A., 248
Fort' Sill, 236, 240, 242, 245,

247, 264, 269, 272, 274,

277, 287
Fort Washakie, 420, 422
Foster, William, 303 et seq.
Fourth National Bank, 100

Gallaher, Rev. H. M., 59, 60
Garfield, James A., 228
Garrett, John W., 336, 337
Robert, 336, 337, 345, 351
Garrison, Com. C. K., 184, 185,

186, 199, 223, 225
Gill, Emlyn M., 464
Gilman, Wm. C., 54
Goethals, Col. G. W., 375
Going, Chas. Buxton, 467
Gold Exchange, 48, 60, 81, 84,
85, 87, 88, 89, 96, 97, 98,

INDEX

473

104, 110, 112, 120, 130, 132,

134 178 390
Good Ground, 300, 303, 307
Gould, Jay, 127, 167, 177, 178,

181, 182, 183, 345, 354,

355
Grant & Ward, 359
Grant, Gen. U. S., 332
Greeley, Horace, 171, 331
Green, Capt., 223
Gros Ventre River, 425

Hallgarten, 94, 95
Hammond's time, 94, 95, 96
Hanging of Hicks, 39
Harland, Thomas, 208
Harlem R. R., 61, 62, 63
Harper Bros., 207
Harriman, E. H., 179
Harris, Gov., 242
Hart, Tim, 395, 399, 402 et

seq.
Hatch, the good, 145

Rufus, 145
Havana, 212 et seq.
Hay, John, 207

S. C, 165
Hazletine, Mayo W., 325
Henry, HL, 296, 297
Hofer, Edward, 447, 448
Hope & Co., 367
Hopi, 285, 455
Hornaday, W. T., 458, 465
Huntington, C. P., 167, 354
Hyde, Henry B., 73

Ingersoll, Robt. G., 230, 231
Iron Mountain, 251, 258, 270,

272, 279, 283
Iron Mountain R. R., 142
Investment Co. of Philadel-
phia, 367

Jackson's Hole, 425
Jefferson, Joseph, 449, 450
Johnson, Capt. A. B., 208

Jones, Horace, 252, 256, 258,

263 et seq.
Jordan at J. C. ferry, 36
Julia, The, 202, 203

Keene, James, 359
Kelly, Eugene, 157
Kennedy, John S., 152
Ketcham, wSon & Co., Ill
Kicking Bird, 274, „>75
Kiowas, 243, 245, 249, 273, 2TH,

285, 294
Knott, Proctor, 331

La Branche, Geo. M., 464

Lansing, 238, 239

Law, John, 378

Lawson, Col., 2S1

Lehigh Valley Tel. Co., 350

Limestone Mesa, 402

Locke, D. R., 332

Lock wood & Co., 108, 109

Lone Wolf, 274, 275, 280, 281,

282
Lyons, H. J. & Co., 117, 118
Joseph, 236, 237

Macdonald, Henry J., 325
Mackenzie, 319, 402 et seq.
McCloskv, 279, 280
McCulloch, Hugh, 130
McDonough, 352, 353
Marquand & Dimock, 108, 109,

140
Marquand, Frederick, 32, 39
HenrV G., 2^, 30. 32, 41, 55,

66, 60, 71, 71, 141
Marshalltown, 237
Marine Bank, 359
Mavnard, Edward. 141, 145, I 17
Medicine Bluff, 243. 274
Melliss of the World, 77
Menlo Park, 3J9
Menominee, 307, 422
Minzesheimer & Co., l1 B
Missouri, 219, 221, 223, 224

474

INDEX

Montana, 285
Montauk, 174

Morro Castle, 206, 211, 219, 221
Morton, 49
Mumford, 113, 114
Myers, P. M., 108, 109, 130,
131, 134 et seq.

Nassau, 19T, 211, 213, 221, 222

Nast, Thomas, 207

National Banks, 128

National Rifle Association,
338

Navajos, 285, 286, 307, 455

Needles, 220, 387, 418

Newark branch, 334

New Brunswick, 171

New Jersey State Capital, 170

New Mexico, 285

N. Y. Stock Exchange, 41, 61,
75, 78, 145, 148, 149, 150,
155, 158, 168, 201, 322, 342,
344, 347, 349, 351, 375

N. Y. Stock Exchange Rifle
Club, 338

North Carolina bonds, 184, 187

O'Connor, W. D., 208 et seq.,

-2-26
Ojibways, 307
Onawia, 266, 267
Oregon, Pacific R. R., 367
Osages, 293, 295
Osborne, Charlie J., 177
Overend, Gurney & Co., 134

Pacific Mail S. S. Co., 153, 154,

155, 200, 204, 223, 225
Pacific Mutual Tel. Co., 350
Peekamose, 439, 456
Penrose, C. B., 438
Peterman, 297, 299
Phelps Austin, 27

Elizabeth S., 27
Philadelphia, 344 et seq.

Stock Exchange, 344

Piatt, Don, 226

Pike's Opera House, 181

Pinchot, Gilford, 465

Postal Telegraph Co., 346, 348

Postmaster General, 374

Post Office Dep't, 374

Pueblo Indians, 455

Quirtz Quip, 244, 255, 256, 263,
267, 271, 272, 275, 279, 283

Rawlins, 420
Read, E. O., 67, 68
Reid, Whitelaw, 207, 225
Rhinelander, F. W., 368
Riverhead, 301, 303, 308
Rockefeller, John D., 333
Roleson, 344
Rollstone Bank, 21
Roman Nose, 249
Roosevelt, R. B., 467
Ross, John, 112, 113
Royal Palm Hammock, 448
Royal Victoria Hotel, 222

Sag Harbor, 308

Saint Louis, 238

Samson, Dr. G. W., 209 et seq.

Santa Anna, 197

Satanta, 272 et seq.

Schell City, 238, 239

Scott, Gen. Winfield, 193, 196,

197, 225
Sea Islands, 143, 455
Sea Island Cotton Co., 144
Seaman, Frank, 466
Seminoles, 285, 307, 455, 459
Senate, N. J., 171

U. S., 374
Severance, Dr., 320
Shafer Bros., 120
Shelburne Falls, 312, 323
Sherburn, 238, 239
Sheridan, Gen. P. H., 236, 276,

296, 297, 422
Shokan, 386

INDEX

475

Shoshones, 285, 30T, 423

Silverton, 369, 397

Singer Sewing Machine Co.,

169
Sioux, 249

Sixteen Mile Creek, 269
Skeleton Creek, 287, 294, 296
Sloane, President, 189, 190, 191,

192
Smith, Henry N.
James D.,
U. S. Commissioner, 274 et

seq.
Smith-Paul Valley, 244
Smoot, 335

Smyth, Rev. Newman, 27
Snake River, 425
Southern Maryland R. R., 335,

336, 350
Southern Telegraph Co., 350
Spevers, Albert, 87, 180, 181
Standard Oil, 357
Stark Sem., Benjamin, 213
Stedman, E. C, 52, 208
Stillwell, Jack, 245, 246, 248,

249, 264, 279, 280, 282
Stockwell, A. B., 200, 201, 202,

204, 225, 229
Stone, Gen. Chas. P., 193, 195,

196
Stowe, Harriet Beecher, 58
Suit, S. T., 335
Sumter, Fort, 57
Swinton, John, 59, 311
William, 226, 227

Tammany, 181, 361, 364, 365,

369, 370
Tarry town, 144
Tavetossa, 253 et seq.
Tavlor, Bavard, 207

James R*, 47, 48, 51, 53

Moses, 45, 46, 47

S. H., 23
Third Ave. Savings Bank, 145
Thomas, Samuel, 350, 351

Times, N. Y., 227
Tobin, John, 61, 63
Toshaway, 283, 284
Townsend, G. A., 226, 227, 328,

329
Treasury, U. S. Secretary of,

105
Tribune, N. Y., 170

U. S. & Brazil Mail, 184, 186,

225
U. S. Government, 132 et seq.,

145, 179, 208, 224, 225, 276,

277, 285, 374, 375, 420
U. S. Telephone Co., 351
U. S. Treasury, 131, 133, 137
U. S. Trust Co., 201, 202, 332,

333
Ute Indians, 402

Vallecito, 399, 401, 405, 409,

413, 416 et seq.
Vanderbilt, Com., 62, 63, 133,

150, 185, 223
Vermilye & Co., 121
Von Hoffman & Co., 157
Vick, Col., 186

Wagon Wheel Gap, 416
Walker, Isaac, 287, 288, 291,

293, 295
Ward, J. Q. A., 235, 238, 242,

245, 251, 255, 256, 271, 27 J.

274, 279, 419, 420, 126, II.

430, 434, 444
Gen. Rodnev, 419
Sam., 226
Warluka, 275

Warner, Charles Dudley, 464
Washakie. Dick, 423, 424, 426,

427, 445, 446
Washington, 193, 194, 197.

224, 22S, 2A5, > .. 344,

373, 377
& Chesapeake R. R., 331

476

INDEX

City & Pt. Lookout R. R.,

335
Western Union Tel. Co., 350,

355 et seq.
West Shore Tel. Co., 350
Whitman, Walt, 208, 226
Whiton, E. N., 389, 395, 398,

400, 403, 406 et seq.
Wilmington, C. & R. R. R.

Co., 188
Wilson, E. L., 452
Windom, William, 418

Wind River, 423, 424
Wingate, Gen. Geo. W., 338
Wister, Owen, 424, 434
Woerishoeffer, Chas. & Co.,
108, 109

Yale, Mrs. Linus, 322
Yama Farms Inn, 466
Yaphank, 301, 203
Yellowstone Park, 437
Yerkes, Charles T., 355

Ks

;CT 25 1928