The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-06-09

WRITTEN FOR THE SUNDA REPUBLIC.
According TO an article on costly intro
duction which appears in a London weekly.
$1,000 is the record sum paid for the priv
ilege of shaking somebody's hand. This
was the price paid on one occasion fer a
handshake with the late Colonel North. and
that blum old fnancier was so enraged
when he heard of the transaction that he
cut on his friendship with the introduc=r
then and there. and paid the money back
10 the man who had sought the introduce
tion-paid it out of his own pocket.
But II all the tales one hears are true.
and Colonel North had undertaken to reirn-
burse all the sums which had been paid to
obtain his handshake. he would not have
died so rich as he 1id. Sums Of 500. $50
and SEQ were frequently paid for introduce
tion to the Nitrate King by persons who ex-
pected him to help them to make their for
tunes. Needless to say. the money was
practically thrown away in most cases.
When E. T. Hooley was In the zenith Of
his meteoric success there was hardly a
pushing man of inventions or business who
did not seek the famous financier. and the
consequence was that Mr.. Hooley had 20
draw a Gordon around himself to keep will
cat schemers away. or he would have never
had time to do business.
MIR. Hooley's intimate friends might have
amassed fortunes in fees for introductions,
for all sorts of sums we're offered for surh
services. In one case $1,000 was offered and
declined. while a fee Of 5000 was paid for
a handshake with Mr.. Hooley by a Midland
County merchant who wanted his business
noated. only a week or two before the
crash came.
OF course. Mr.. Hooley was no party 70
these brides. Of which he may be totally iz.
norant to this day. II half the bribes that
were offered for i~ntroductions to the me-
teoric fnancier were accepted. Mr.. Hooley's
friends made more out Of him than he made
out Of himself.
II has been limited that another famous
nnancier. who was madly sought after by
hundreds Of people who wanted him to
finance their schemes. employed a friend to
accept all bribes offered in this manner.
and that the two shared the amounts. which
were not infrequently very inconsiderable
The truth Is. the financier discovered that
a certain friend was making a very han1-
some thing by Introducing to him people
with schemes and concerns, and that he
threatened the friend with exposure unless
the friend supplied him with a complete list
OF the names OF persons from within he had
accepted bribes for introductions. and fully
repaid all such sums. The friend laughed
at the threat. refused to comply with either
OF the demands. and declared that he would
give out that the amounts had all been
shared with the fnancier himself IL the lat
ter mentioned the matter to any one.
The ~fnancier dared not imperil his repu-
tation by being ~slandered in this way, ard
was therefore compelled to keep silent. But
after his death. when 1t became known that
his friend had introduced persons to him mt
50 much a time. the introducer declared
that 1t had always been done with the
knowledge cf the ~fnancier. who had half
OF all the sums obtained in this way. Hence
the rumor. which il absolutely without
foundation.
The introoucer admitted that he had made
$4,000 BY Introducing people to the fnancier,
which shows the bald improbability Of his
assertion that he only took half the prof.
fered brides. since It was hardly likely that
$4,000 was forthcoming for mere introduce
tons to the nnancier.
A millionaire money-lender once did offer
one Of the aristocratic clients the return Of
all the %latter's promissory notes. amounting
to nearly $4,000. II he would introduce him
socially to three titled gentlemen, and he
faithfully redeemed his promise. On an
other occasion the same millionaire offered
to knock 1850 on a debt owed him by q
client II the latter gave a dinner to some Of
the smarter OF his friends and invited the
money-lender The money-lender was 50
pleased with the success of the dinner that
ne increased the deduction to 5000.