The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1904-02-07

the Wright properties. It was battle
royal between the two men. once friends.
In the course of a single month the
London and Globe and the Standard be
tween them had lost S5,0G9,0o0 through
the depreciation of the stock
There was a corner in lie Roy No. 2,
and the public sold a larger number OF
shares by 25.090 than were IN existence.
Back OF it all Kaufman kept pounding
away, confident that in the end the col
lapse would come.
IN the end there was a general crash
after Mr. Wright had slept night after
night on the Office table while attempt
ing TO turn Office paper into assets and
to retrieve the situation by making up
the ccmpany's losses in the market.
When the storm broke Mr.. Arnold
White. a financial writer. took UP the
cudgels on behalf Of the stockholders
and succeeded in having an inquiry or
dered.
1t was at this juncture that protection
for Wright from the royal family was
talked Of The feeling against him grew
moreb liter, however, and Il warrant was
finally issued for his arrest.
the case. in Park Lane Wright and his
wife lived in palatial style and with them
lived Miss Florence Browne, a beautiful
young woman, who is Wright's niece.
When Wright made up his mind TO
leave London his wife insisted that Miss
Browne should accompany him, owing to
the precarious condition OF his health
After landing in New York Miss
Browne eluded a score Of detectives and
went to the home of her cousin in Phila-
delphia, taking with her several bundles
that may or may not have contained the
remnants of Wrights fortune.
The story has been detailed within the
week of his long fight against extradi
ton, of his final surrender, Of his legal
battles and Imprisonment after his re-
turn to London; of his trial, and finally,
on Tuesday last, of his conviction, and
of his sentence to seven years penal
servatude, followed BY his collapse in
court and his death with twenty min
utes-an intensely dramaticc limax TO
truly remarkable career.
After all. perhaps Mr. Wright is not
unlike good many men who are still
living and still honored in financial cir
cles. He played his game to the end, did
his best TO escape punishment, and fur
nished a picturesque ending by dying on
the very threshold Of the expiation he
dreaded. He is the greatest figure in
the as yet unwritten martyrology Of High
Finance. When the far-reaching hand of
justice stretched itself across the ocean
and took the daring man by the heels in
New York. he sent the following charac-
teristic cablegram to London:
Il have never, on any occasion what
ever sought to screen myself behind any
one. and have never sought to relieve
myself from any responsibility by at
tempting to put any PAR of it on others
shoulders.
Il should not refer to this now but for
the fact that malicious fa!sehoods have
been cabied here and then cabled back
again to London as emanatipg from me.
l can only account for this on the ground
that my enemies know they cannot Gre
ate a greater prejudice against me in the
public mind than by circulating such
wicked untruths.
"WHITAxER WRIGHT"
True to the moral code Of modern High
Finance. Wright regarded al who inter
fered with his plans as public cenemies
and died a conscious martyr