Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1893-04-21
AN INCIDENT INA CAFE
HOW A. RICH IMAM MAY BE LIBERAL.
BUT NOT SENTIMENTAL.
The Too Deiuded Writer Neglected to
Take Advantage of the Offer Of the
wealthy Man, and So When Money was
Needed He Was Repulsed with Candor.

Take Advantage OF tne ouer OF tne
wealthy Man, and So When Money wss
Needed He Was Repulsed with Candor.
One Inornin,.. at the hour when one
meets in Broadway only street cleaners,
day laborers and exotic princes, q rich
inancier and writer Of phases of city
life were in the cafe of fashionable
restaurant. The fnancier was eating a
serious filet, the writer a frivolous eel
with tartar sauce. They had bowed to
each other and then pursued the even
tenor of their thoughts, which, surely,
were not similar, for the writer, listen
ing perhaps to harmonious phrases
which were in his mind, smiled, whereas
the financier, nervous and careworn,
moved his lips as If reciting a lesson
which he knew not well. His mute
turbulence became 30 annoying to the
writer that he decided to ask the cause
of it.
"My dear friend" said the financier,
"I may tell you--who will never harm
me and who are ever walking in azure
that in an hour / shall surely have lost
my credit, my fortune, everything.
There is meeting Of stockholders from
whom / must get more money, and !
have not yet found pretext, good or
bad, nor the first word of my speech. l
relied on my secretary, who is a man of
genius, but he rushed out in the street
yesterday without his coat, and today he
is in bed with pneumonia. Just my
luckr'
Without deigning to comment on the
ferocious selfshness contained in the
financier's last phrase, the writer asked
for an explanation of the financial diff
Guilty and received it in phrases brief,
precise, saying exactly what the speaker
wished to say-perhaps because they
were not addressed to stockholders
Then he asked the waiter to send for
paper, ink and stub pen, and said
calmly:
Nothing can be easier. l wish it
were as simple an affair to write a phase
of city life, with its exposition, develop
ment and final expression"
"a phase of city life?" asked the fnan-
cier with evident surprise.
EYES," replied the writer. "They are
things that we do as a sort Of relief,
when we are so burdened with work
that we do not know where to begin
As for your speech, it shall be quickly
made up. Your mines are exhausted;
you are after other mines in their place;
your stockholders expected dividends,
and they shall be assessed. Not to be
able to convince stockholders Of the i'm
perious necessity of paying an assess
ment is to admit that one has never
known how to put in its place word Of
four syllables and has never been the
friend Of flaming adjectives."
The phasist wrote rapidly in cursive
letters; the leaves were piling up before
him and they were covered with perfect
ly regular lines. The fnancier was beat
ing tattoo with his nails on rod Of
his chair. The writer ceased to write,
and the financier began to read. As he
read his face frightened, and in the end
1t radiated light as if dipped in the pink
furnaces of Aurora.
''It is positive, then, that the things
which wished to say to my stockhold-
ers are true" he said when he had par
TALLY recovered from his stupefaction.
'They are true if correctly deduced
from one another, united with that false
metal which is called logic, expressed in
words the sounds of which are varied
enough to preoccupy those who listen,
because in literary point of view there
IL no other sort of TRUTH" the writer re-
piled.
The financier had quickly paid his bill
to the waiter, put on and buttoned his
overcoat, and placed the manuscript in
his :. gCckst; gS ct. - vo,,rs.~ no sa,o 70 r0s
writer, while he pressed his hand.
"Only claim it. But I suppose you
would not know what to do with it, SO
let us talk seriously. How much money
do you want? cannot do less than pay
you any sum that you may name"
"Oh," said the writer, ~ sell phases
Of city life, but do not deal in financial
speeches. have written this only to
serve you. Do not talk Of it. Iwant
nothing" ~"
"Nothingi" exclaimed the financier,
with a suspicious air. well, suit your
self. am obliged to you, anyhow"
The writer quickly forgot the incident.
He was too busy collecting epithets de-
scriptive Of the saffrons, the pinks and
the grays Of sunsets to think Of We un-
published page Of Robert Macaire" that
he had written. But his cashier suddenly
desired to visit Canada, and not TO travel
alone took the cash box with his luggage.
It happened on the day when Sloane's
bill for oriental rugs, which the writer
had bought on credit, was due. At the
same time Bradstreet's, Matthews and
Stikeman sent to him fifty volumes eco
bound In half Levant morocco
Of various colors at the rate of four dol
lars volume. He called on tho fnan-
cier, who demonstrated in few words
how wide the gulf is which separates
man of finance from a man Of city life
phases. He said:
mo. l never lend money TO people
who are not practical. When you saved
me from bankruptcy l asked you to
name the sum that you wished. world
have given you $40, 200, $50, 900. $40, 900
and notes secured by bonds. and any
thing that Won might have asked. but