The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-10-27

/ he looked as stony of face as if he had sudden
" died but neglected to close his eyes
Marge hastily sought the outer air; it
seemed tn him he would lose his reason if he
did not get away from that awful telephone
/ Thirty-sevenl he knew what that meant; his
margin might have saved his own stock had
! the drop been to little below par, but it had
tumbled more than half a hundred points, SO
of course his brokers had closed the account
when the margin was exhausted, and Marge,
who q fortnight before had counted himself
worth nearly million dollars wall street
millionsl, was now simply without penny
to his credit in Wall street or anywhere else;
what money he CHANGED to have in his pocket
was all he could hope to call his own until
the first of the next month, when the occu-
pants of his tenement houses would pay their
rent.
1t was awful; it was uncomfortable; he longed
to scream to rave, to tear his hair He
mentally cursed the bears, the brokers, the
directors, and every one else but himself.
He heard some of his companions in the store
bawling messages through the telephone, to
be wired to New York; these were veterans,
who assumed from past experience that a
partial recovery would follow and that they
would partly recoup their losses. But what
could he do9 There was not on earth a per-
son whom he could ask, by telegraph, for the
few hundred dollars necessary to small
speculation on the ruins.
He heard the outburst of incredulity, fol-
lowed by rage, as the passengers who had re-
manned at the little hotel received the unex-
pected news, which now seemed to him to be
days old. Then he began to suspect every
body, even the crushed president and direc-
tors. What could be easier, Marge said to
himself, than for these shrewd fellows to I'M
load quietly before they left New York, and
then get out of reach so that they could not
render any support in case of breakl He
had heard of such things before. |: certainly
was suspicious that the crash should have
come the very day after they got away from
the telegraph wires. Likely enough they now,
through their brokers, were quietly buying
up all the stock that was being offered, to
peg it up" little by little, to where it had
been. Tho mere suspicion made him want to
tear them limb from limb, to organize n
lynching party, after the fashion of the to-
ritory they were in, and get revenge. if not
justice.
1t was rather n dismal party that returned
to New York from the trip over the E. &
w. The president, fearing indignant west
rrn investors, and still more the newspaper
reporters, whom he knew would lie in wait
for him until they found him, quietly aban-
doned the train before reaching Chicago, and
went eastward by some other route. A few
of the more hardened operators began 20 en-
courage each other by telling of other breaks
that had been the making OF the men they
first ruined, but they dropped their consoling
"reminiscences when MarSe approached them;
they had only contempt Tor man who from
his manner evidently was 81 completely
cleaned out" rs 10 De unable to start again,
even in small way. The majority, how
ever, seemed as badly of as himself. Some
Of them were SO depressed that when the
stock of cigars provided especially for the
excursion was exhausted they actually bought
common pipes and tobacco at a way station,
and industriously poisoned the innocent air
for hundreds of miles.
This, then, was the end of Marge's dream
of wealth! Occasionally, in other days, he
had lost small sums i'll Wall street, but only
he and his broker knew Of it; no one ever
knew in what line of stock he operated. But
now-whv, had not his name been printed
again and again among those Of E. &. WIS
strongest backersl Every one would know
of his misfortune: he could no logger pose as
shrewd young fnancier, much less as
man with as large an income as he had time
to enjoy.
Would that he had not been so conceited
and careless as to mentally give up Lucia,
who now, for some reason, persisted in APP
pearing in his minds eye! Had he given
half as much attention to her as to E. s. W.,
she might now be his, and their wedding
cards might be out. And iron was still
looking up. tool How could any one not a
lunatic have become so devoted to chance as
to throw away a certaintyl for she had been
certainty for him, he believed, had he
chosen to realize Alasl with her, as with
E. & W., he had been too slow at realizing.