Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1895-10-19

leaving us about $2S 600 each. Making
this calculation, we sat down, and with
the cash safe in our hands we were
planning for the future. Did we say,
"Now we have sum Of money ample
to start us in an honest business, and
we will quit?" Nothing Of the sort.
We were blind to the promises made to
call halt when funds were got. Now
VIC seemed poor and said, "What fools
We would be to quit; We will make it
800. 600 each first. and already were
planning new schemes.
Soon after the noon hour the train
started, and we left Cologne all right,
and at the first station out I alighted
and Joined him.
We had pleasant all night Journey,
arriving very early the next morning at
Ostend. How lovely the sea looked,
with the morning sun shining ON its
restless waves!
We got to Dover without accident,
and two hours after the express landed
us in London. and we drove at once to
our appointed rendezvous, the Terminus
hotel, London bridge. We had no news
Of George, but that evening, opening
the door in response to loud knock, he
walked in, receiving q boisterous well
come.
The next morning we all drove to
Hampton Court, the creation Of Wolsey,
and when tired we went to the Star and
Garter. There we talked over matters
and came to the conclusion we must
have 100000 apiece before we could
afford to settle down at home.
We resolved to send off the percent
age" to Irving 6 Co., and to pay all
debts we were owing at home.
This matter settled, we determined
to have a little recreation by taking q
tour in Italy. After studying guide
books and routes We resolved to take q
steamer from Southampton to Naples,
spend few days there in seeing the
town and visiting Pompeii, etc. then
north to Rome.
We had made considerable preparation
for our tour, when a circumstance arose
that not only changed our plans, but in
tho sequel changed our lives as well.
We had been paying another visit to
Hampton Court, and in place of dining
at the Star and Garter we returned by
boat on the Thames and dined at the
Cannon Street hotel Before going to
the hotel we took a stroll down Lom-
bard street, and, arriving at the inter
section Of streets opposite the Bank Of
England, we came to a halt. While
watching the human whirlpool in that
center of throbbing life turned to my
friends, and, pointing to the Bank of
England, said, Boys, you may depend
upon it, there is the softest spot in the
world, and We could hit the bank for a
million as easy as rolling off log"
No response was made at the time, and
the casual remark was apparently for
gotten. Well for us il it had been!
The next day we went for a drive to
Windsor and were to dine at y famous
old roadside inn. On arr: .-s we of
course visited the castle, and while
viewing the decorations in the stately
throneroom Mac stopped George and
me with the remark that something I
had said tho day before had been stick
ing in his mind. He went on to say
that we wanted $780, 600 apiece in or
der to return home in good shape, that
the Bank of England had plenty to
spare, and it was well for the lightning
to strike where the balances were heavy.
The bank would never miss the money,
and he firmly believed the whole direct
orate Of the fossil institution was per-
meated with the dry rot Of centuries.
The managers were convinced that their
banking system was impregnable, and,
as consequence, it would fall an easy
victim, provided, as we suspected, the
bank had really been managed by hered-
itary asses.
Here was q picture indeed-three
American adyenturers, two of them
barely past their majority, standing in
the throneroom Of Windsor castle and
plotting to strike q blow ut the money
bags of the Bank of England!
The idea grew ON us rapidly. After
dinner We sat in the twilight of that
old inn and discussed the Old Lady Of
Threadneedle street from point of view
from which she had probably never been
discussed before. can imagine with
what scorn the pulled and bepuffed
magnates of the bank would have re-
garded us had they known Of our dis
cussion.
They boasted to mo, and had boasted
for a century, that their system was per-
feet, and as a proof that it was SO they
widely proclaimed they had not changed
it in 100 years. They had proclaimed so
loudly and SO long its absolute invul-
nerability that they not only believed
it themselves, but all the world had
come to believe it as well. "Safe as tho
bank" was a proverb everywhere un-
DERIVING the English tongue.
In our discussion We speedily came to
the conclusion that any system Of
finance unchanged in detail for a CEN
tury, belief in tho perfection of which
was an article of faith not alone with
the officials charged with its manage
ment, but with the people Of England
at Large. must, in the very nature of the
case, lie wide open to the attack Of any
man bold enough to doubt its impreg-
inability and resolute to attack
What q Pigment of the imagination
this boasted impregnability of the Bank
NJ Inn ~~sn Il