The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-07-15

IN lard by Henry KitcheH Webster and
from the press of Macmillan & Co., New
YORK. The banker whipped the bear af-
ter an interesting time of it. The bear
was Melville Sponley, and his purposes
and procedure may be understood if one
VIII read the record of a conversation
which ne had with his wife the evening
after he had had lunch with young John
Bagsbury
Harriet Sponley was her husbands
companion and familiar friend; he told
her all about his various business com
plications, how he. contrived to bear the
market, and the means he employed to
that end. She was younger than he, but
she had lines in her face which suggested
that it was not good for woman to be
familiar with the stock market
This particular evening she said to him:
You didn't come home to lunch"
'N-no." A smile broke over his heavy
face. II was engaged in agricultural
pursuits 1t planted grain. of mustard
seed which will grow into a great tree.
some time We may be glad to roost
therein
Riddles" she exclaimed. please give
me the key to this one I don't feel like
guessing"
If you will have it, I have been put
ting a cyclone cellar in a bank"
| Whose bank?'
"Bagsburys," he. answered, smiling
| more broadly.
"Bagsbury's," she repeated, in an injur-
| ed tone L really want to know. Please
| tell me-"
Did you ever hear" he asked, as they
! left the dining room and entered the Ii
brary, ''of young John Bagsbury?''
mo, do you know him?'
He dropped into an easy chair. Met
him yesterday"
1T won't do any good" she said,
somebody has probably come round al
ready and warned him that you're dan
gefous man, or plunger, or something
like that"
Yes, 1 warned him today myself"
She laughed and moved away toward
the piano. AS She passed behind his
chair she patted his head approvingly
For this conversation to be quite intel
igible, it is necessary to say that Bags
bury's bank was very slow and con-
sentative institution and that old Mr..
Bagsbury was rigid in his adherence to
his methods. John Bagsbury, now at
work in his fathers bank, was an ear
nest, strong young man, was beginning
to be ashamed of the bank, and Spon-
ley discouraged this feeling of dissatisfac-
ton. He could wait a long time, could
Melville Sponley.
In the years that followed John and the
Sponleys became very intimate. and John
married Alice Blair, an orphan cousin of
Mrs. Sponley. John had left his fathers
bank early in the chapter, and had long
training in the school OF the modern
banker, quick, sharp, hard experience.
When Johns father died 1t was found
hot he ho1 az e., ~ A.
real child of his affection, the bank, by
putting the management of his estate
in the hands of Conservative trustees, and
giving to John only the income. The
dream of Johns life was to succeed to
the management of the Bagsbury bank,
and here seemed an insurmountable OBJ
stacle. Diplomacy was his only weapon;
If he could get himself elected president
Of the bank he could cat least have the
management of it for time.
1t is a long story and a good story, that
which tells of how John succeeded in this
effort, and how Sponley helped him. A
new character had come into John'e life
now, his niece, the daughter of his only
sister, who had married against her
fathers wishes. Dick Haselridge was
just through college, and she had come
to her uncle's home on visit, pro-
longed one now. She was called Dick
because she played with Tom and Harry
in her childhood and her father thought
it a pity to spoil the euphony Of their
names. John Dorlin had followed her to
the city. He had loved her for years,
rather boy and girl affair, but he was
destined to love her more deeply.
''I hate that mani" said Dick to Jack,
as they were discussing Mr.. Sponley. 81
wouldn't trust him behind "a ladder!''
The situation developed itself. Sponley
helped John Bagsbury into the presi-
dency. of his fathers bank because he
hoped to be able to use him sometime,
but he was arriving at the conclusion
that there would, sooner or later, be a
contest between them, and Sponley was
no mean antagonist. He had never been
beaten in the more than twenty-five years
he had operated on. the floor of the stock
exchange.
The fight came One Pickering, a de-
positor Of Johns, was trying to corner
the lard market, and Sponley was trying
to bear the market. Sponley had worked
very cleverly. He had spy in the Bags
bury bank, one Curtin, whom Dick dimly
disliked, and as dimly suspected Sponley
of cOnniving with, but she feared to sug-
gest such a thing to John. When war
was declared between Sponley and John,
1t came because Sponley tried to make
John his tool, to make him desert the
man to whom he was pledged. John
self leader. The memory of Dick had
helped her uncle out. AS he said to her
afterwards:
ST have an idea that having you around
-well-that you've brushed up my win
dows little" and he smiled apologeti-
cally over the figure, 'and-and I want
to thank you"
To return to the corner in lard. sponley
found that he would have to break
Johns bank to serve his own purposes,
and to that end he bent his energies It
was about this time that Harriet Sponfey
believe her husband; She found that
he was no longer sincere with her. In
truth, the man was ashamed to have her
know the extent of his treachery to his
broker, 42d Sponley thought the odds
Were with the bear.
The story of Harriet Sponley's awaken
ing, determination. and action all goes
great man that women are not loyal to
the abstract, but to the concrete, as ex-
pressed in some Individual.
Harriet looked upon life from thor
oughly immoral point of view. OF abb
stract right and wrong she had little con-
ception. So long as Sponleys operations
know, except asher husbands oppo-
ents, she never applied the criterion of
fair play. But all Gthat was changed
az soon as John Bagsbury was concerned
as brother, her loyalty to her husband,
and the, mere suspicion of what Sponley
had been doing that afternoon, of the
meaning of his talk with Hauxton, and of
his two telephone messages, was intolera-
bic. 1t was bad enough that the
temptation of a promising campaign
should have led him to turn upon his
friend; but why-why should it not have
been fair open fighting; why need 1t come
to a piece of loathSome treachery like
this blow from behind? She must, stand