The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-03-27

fashioned apartments. He also has
a London house, which. is one of the
most magnificent in the city. His
yachts have been among the best in
British waters and his dinners were
magnificent in the extreme.
So great, indeed, vas his fame at
that time that a successful novel was
written by the late Harold Frederic,
called 1.-THE Market Place." which
was understood to veil under a thin
guise of fiction the main events in
the career of the promoter and his
connection with Lord Dufferin.
The former is called in the novel
Stormout Thorpe. He had started
in early life as Joel S. Thorpe, but
had dropped the Joel and spelled out
the middle name in full, just as
Wright's name is said to be J. w.
Wright. Lord Dufferin masquerades
as the Marquis, of Chaldon. This is
the novelist's description of the pro-
moter:
Thorpe was tall but of a burly
and slouching figure. His face, shroud-
ed in a high growing dust colored
beard, invited no attention. One seem
ed always to have known this face
thick featured, immobile, undistin-
guished. It's accessories for the time
being were even more than ordinarily
unimpressive. Both hair and beard
were ragged with neglect. His COM
monplace dark clothes looked as if
he had slept in them; the hands rest
ing on his big knees were coarse in
shape and roughened and ill-kept."
The novelist goes on to describe
how Thorpe induced members of the
nobility to lend themselves to his
schemes, and tells how the Marquis
of Chadron. Ambassador at Vienna
in his time, but willing to gather in
his five hundred a year just the
same" became chairman of the board
of directors of Thorpe's great COM
pany, just as Lord Dufferin became
chairman of the board of directors
of the London and Globe Finance
company.
In the end, all of Thorpe's enemies
are ruined, his friends enriched, he
himself marries a wealthy and aris-
tocratic wife, and the novelist leaves
him planning new schemes by which
he may utilize the noble friends, under
whose tables he is now privileged to
place his feet.
Mr.. Wright's financiering has been
of the ~pyrotechnic order. He f1oated
into prominence and fortune on the
flood gates of the boom in West Aus
tralian gold mines.
The London and Globe Finance
company was a promoting concern
for manufacturing securities, and it
has been said that none of the direc-
tors except Mr.. Wright had the slight
est grasp of it's affairs or the remotest
conception of it's ramifications and
ventures.
Men like Lord Dufferin, Lord Loeb
and Lord William Beresford we're
used by Wright to dazzle the bour-
geois public, rather than to assist in
guiding the affairs of the company.
He had a marvellously rich mine
in Lake View, in West Australia,
which was turning out $4,000 a
month in gold. and the stock scared
to $40 a share.
An American mining engineer was
in charge at the mine, and reported
to Mr.. Wright's London office that
the Bonanza mine, which was produc-
ing most of the profits, was grow
ing bigger and stronger in depth.
Mr.. Wright bought all the stock in
sight, only to learn later that the
great store of ore was dug out.
Before the collapse of the Lake
View mine Mr.. Wright had advanced
$1O,0 0O, O00-the total capitalization of
the London and Globe Finance COM
pany-to the Baker street railroad
scheme in London. Then he bought
out the British American corporation,
with a capital of $1,000, 600. 1t was
over subscribed and the stock went
I G a premium. This corporation bought
up the LIE Roi and other mines in
British Columbia, and within two
years the LIE Roi mine alone was said
to have made 50, 900 profit.
Four different corporations were
organized to control these mines and
the companies were foated on the
London market. The stock Of ali
rose to a large premium and the mar
- 4 H. 80 H. E~,,,. @yo