# The President's Daughter (Britton)/Chapter 139

Tim early revealed to me what he termed the "inside dope" on The Marion Daily Star purchase by Mr. Brush and Mr. Moore. He said that Mr. Brush would be vitally concerned in seeing that no expose of Mr. Harding's love-story was made, for it would affect the sales of his paper. Tim was of the opinion that Mr. Brush ought to be asked to contribute to any fund he, Tim, might undertake to raise for Warren Harding's daughter, because Mr. Brush had benefitted greatly from Mr. Harding's sale of the Star. Just why or how Mr. Brush had gained, I do not remember, though Tim explained it all to me at the time.
But I do remember the incident which led me to think that Tim Slade wanted to approach Mr. Brush as much in his own behalf as in my daughter's: He said that when Mr. Frank A. Vanderlip came out publicly with statements concerning the sale of The Marion Daily Star, Mr. Brush immediately promised to pay him a certain sum of money if he, Tim, would intercede and successfully handle the situation. Tim said that Mr. Vanderlip, on the other hand, called him to his home, or office, and offered him a straight $35,000 a year if Tim would work for him. This offer Tim said he refused. What Tim could do for Frank A. Vanderlip, beyond negotiating in the matter about the Star, I do ​not know. In any event, Tim said that he was responsible for having smoothed the matter out for Mr. Brush, but, up until the time he repeated the story to me, he had not received payment for his services.
Evidently, from the interviews which followed with Tim Slade at the Waldorf, he was not allowing any grass to grow under his feet. He told me he had called Mr. Crissinger on the phone and had intimated to him the nature of my problem, and that Mr. Crissinger had been eager to learn the details. "Dick" Crissinger was a Marion man whom Mr. Harding appointed Governor of the Federal Reserve in Washington, and who now holds that position. However, when Tim called Mr. Crissinger the second time, presumably to make a definite appointment with him, inasmuch as Mr. Crissinger had been frank to say he was very much interested in hearing the whole story, Tim said he was informed very curtly by Mr. Crissinger that he knew nothing about the matter nor did he care to know, and that he refused to have anything to do with it at all. I said to Tim that it looked as though Mr. Crissinger had approached someone else in the meantime and had received suggestions as to the attitude he should take.
About George Christian, President Harding's private secretary, Tim seemed to feel only the one thing which he very often expressed, which was in substance, "Poor old George! If anything else comes to his ears about the Harding Administration, I don't know what will happen to him!"
How terrible it all was, to be sure! The more Tim told me of Mr. Harding's "friends," the more my heart bled for him who had leaned upon them for the same gracious support and loyalty he had so generously bestowed. If such conditions existed, and Warren Harding, having trusted and been betrayed, really knew about them, what heart-break it must have brought! Tim's revelations were startling, yet the court trials, the talk, and the scandal that had gone on since Mr. Harding's tragic death all helped to make them seem plausible to me.