The Portland daily press., 1893-01-25
An INCIDENT In A CAFE.
How a Rich Man May be Liberal But
Not Sentimental.

Wealthy Man, anu 30 when -'Ao'AoJ Nv 90
Needed He Was Repulsed with Candor.
One morning, at the hour when one
meets in Broadway only street cleaners,
dav laborers and exotic princes, a rich
financier and a writer of phases of city
life were in the cafe of fashionable
restaurant. The fnancier was eating
serious filet, the writer 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 lesson
which he knew not well. His mute
turbulence became so annoying to the
writer that he decided to ask the cause
of it.
"My dear friend" said the 6nancier,
81 NAV tell you--who will never harm
me and who are ever walking in azure
that in an hour 7 shall surely have lost
my credit, my fortune, everything.
There is meeting Of stockholders from
whom I must get more money, and l
have not yet found a pretext, good or
bad. nor the first word of my speech. l
relied on my secretary, who is 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:
'sNothing can be easier. l wish it
were as simple an affair to write phase
of city life, with its exposition, develop
ment and final expression"
tsAphase of city life?" asked the finan-
cier with evident surprise.
ssYes," 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
" regular lines. The financier was beat
ing tattoo with his nails on rod of
his chair. The writer ceased to write,
and the fnancier began to read. AS he
read his face frightened, and in the end
it radiated light as if dipped in the pink
furnaces of Aurora.
SIT is positive, then, that the things
which I wished to say to my stockhold-
ers are true" he said when he had par
TALLY recovered from his stupefaction.
sAThey 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
is 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 pocket.
"My life is yours" he said to the
writer, while he pressed his hand
'Only claim it. But suppose you
would not know what to do with it, sc
let us talk seriously. How much money
do you want? I cannot do less than pay
you any sum that you may name"
"Oh," said the writer, II sell phases
of city life, but do not deal in financial
speeches. / have written this only to
serve you. Do not talk Of it. want
nothing"
"Nothing!' exclaimed the fnancier,
with 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 safrons, the pinks and
the grays of sunsets to think of tie un
published page of ''Robert Macaire" thai
he had written. But his cashier suddenly
desired to visit Canada, and not to trave
alone took the cash box with his luggage
1t happened on the day when Sloane'
bill for oriental rugs, which the writer
had bought on credit, was due. At thu
same time Bradstreet's, Matthews an(
Stikeman sent to him fifty volumes eco
nomically bound in half Levant morocco
of various coiors at the rate of four dol
lars volume. He called on the finan
cier, who demonstrated in few words
how wide the gulf is which separates
man of finance from a man of city lift
phases. He said:
''No. I never lend money to people
who are not practical. When you saved
me from bankruptcy I asked you tx
name the sum that you wished. would