The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-01

produce dealer. He did poorly as a petro-
leum manufacturer, until James Fisk, jr.,
fell under his fascination and helped him
TO fortune, and even then the money he
made with Fisk's aid he lost on Wall
street. But never did he lay down his hand
or lose cOuntenanCe. From an early day
he lived at the Hoffman House, and in the
sight of men, and l defy any man who has
seen him in all these years to arise and
say when ever he saw Stokes other than a
personificatiOn of impurtability. Like the
true gambler he was he never lost faith In
his own ltimat success. And that faith
he impressed upon others, like Cassius NJ.
Reed, his one-time partner whom he ruined,
and who paid, time after time, enormous
losses of StOkeS'S mourning.
The episode of the killing Of Fisk is one
little understood at the present day. FISK
has been a long time dead, and that chart
table forgetfulness has softened the out
lines of the man who, next to Tweed and
Jay Gould, probably was the wickedest
and most dangerous man New York ever
knew. That Stokes played false to him,
inexcusably false, in stealing the love of
Fisk's mistress, and using her love to
worm important business secrets out of
her protector, is unquestionably true. But
after Sis awoke to what was going on. he
became an enemy so impiacable-he who
had ruined men and murdered men In MS
own devlish ways, who had debauched the
name of Justice and who held the courts Of
the city in the hollow of his fat bandit
became a battle to the death, a duel in
which nothing short Of a fatal ending to
one party or the other would suffice.
If stokes had not killed Fisk. Fisk would
have ruined Stokes and thrown him out of
the city. There is no question Of that.
Stokes, the perfect gambler, chose the
former alternative and he always felt after
ward tina he had rid the city of a monster.
do not attempt to excuse or palliate the
murder. But Stokes suffered for it-suffered
worse, a thousand fold. than had he gone
to the scaffold. Never, after he had left
Sing Si4g, where he lived like a Sybarite,
did he ever sleep without a light, and a
bright one, burning in his room, or without
the presence OF some one beside himself TO
help keep off the ghost of the man he had
that means. You may think you do, but
you never can know unless you have killed
your man"
STUDY FOR sARDOU.
What a study for Sardou this Mansfield
episode would make! This woman, now a
helpless cripple in Philadelphia-at sixty
two a paralytic-was a modern specimen Of
a Cleopatra. Never before or since did she
acknowledge the mastery of a man with
whom she came in contact. But Stokes
mastered her completely. He used her
as his tool, and when he had done with her
he threw her away, just as he threw away
an old pack or cards which had served
him for an evening. The woman was
typical of a life when does not exist, in
New York at any rate, at the present day,
the type which blazons forth it's infamy in
PUBIC pldC6S anu SlOIlcS IN It's SndDles the
same type of a woman that William Nj.
Tweed was of a man.
Ah, we do things better now. We are
more refined than in the days of Fisk and
Tweed and Josie Mansfield. If we have
vices, We possess the grace to hide them in
a measure, not 10 trick them out in gaudy
raiment, and load them down with jewels,
and blazon them forth for the admiration
of the public, like a sixty sheet poster upon
a billboard.
AS Stokes grew older he grew more re-
fined in his methods. The greatest and
best friend he ever had-unless 1t were
Cassius NJ. Reed. who was too good a
friend for his own welfare-was Joha w.
Mackay, the Western mining king. who
since has proved To be a colOSsusin business.
Stokes won his friendship by a coup as
exquisite as that Of Sir Walter Raleigh
when he laid his satin cloak between the
mire and the dainty feet of a queen. He
refused to sell him a mare for so. 900 and
sold it TO him for 100000.
The story is worth telling again. Both
Stokes and Mackay We're lovers Of fine
horse flesh, and when in San Francisco
Stokes first met the mining magnate. He
was driving among other fast horses a
could outstep almost anything on the Gold
en- Gate boulevard.
Mackay coveted the mare. He sent his
emissaries 70 Stokes, who offered prices in
a steadily increasing crescendO until they
reached the sum OF $4,000, a large sum for
a roadster in that day. But Stokes was
obourate. The mare was not for sale, he
| said. He waited until he knew that
Mackay was keenly feeling his disappoint-
ment. and then he sent a messenger with
a note TO the magnate's apartments In the
Palace Hotel.
. Mr.. Stokes begs that Mr.. Mackay ac-