Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-12-23

man had stepped in and saved Depew, using his influence with Odell when the governor chairman was on the eve 1 of throwing the senator down in his l candidacy for reelection, and that 1 but why extend the list? The world is full of rumors, the political world espe- cially. That fairly oozes with more kinds of gossip than the ancient quilt ing bee. Old man Tt Is Said' is the busiest politician of them all.
 Through all this mist of allegations one fact stands forth clearly. It at least is undisputed Odell and Harri- man are and have been very close to- gether. Chief Inquisitor Hughes never overlooks things of this kind So when he had Hartman worked up to the right pitch he urbanely asked:
 Tt has been charged that through your relation with Mir 0dell you have political influence. What would you say as to that?"
 "Well,' replied Mir Hartman, T should think Mir. Odell had political in- iuence because of his relations with me-"
 Not the Resigning Kind. There you have it. Is it not refresh ing? That is almost as good as the statement of the Perfect" Perkins that he was the whole thing in the New York Life. Perkins, by the way, is ,,p% f,, Ia I at a1I He talked and then resigned So did McCurdy. But all this is beside the point. Hartman will not resign. No fear-or should I say hope?-of that. He is not the resigning kind. True, he did resign from the Equitable-so of ow-wow-wowed" himself out, as it were. But he only did that because nothing more was in sight there. No juice left in that lemon. There is a whole lot of juice in all those western railroads that Hartman controls. He could not be scared out of those if every state were bristling with an in- vestigation and at the head of every investigation were Hughes. Not on your life. He himself has said that he never lets anything get away that he wants, not if he has his fingers on it. He wants the railroads, and he has them in his grip. So do not imagine that there is anything more doing in the resigning line by Edward Henry Hartman.
 What Odell thought of that testimony is not on record Perhaps it would not look well if it were on record. Harri- man explained afterward that it was all joke He even gave diagram of the joke and seemed surprised and pained that anybody had taken 1t seri- ously Then the public roared. It saw the point. But these high fnanciers should not spring their playful humor this way. They should furnish dia- grams as they go along. How is any one to know when to laugh? There Is danger of breaking into the most seri- ous passages of testimony with un- seemly hilarity and being dead blank when the really funny things are thrown off by the witnesses. If those in the chair could sort of prepare us so that we might cachinnate at the right places it would save whole lot of embarrassment. After Hartman made it plain that he was only in fun even Lew Dockstader, the minstrel, saw the point and came out with the offer of handsome salary to the rail- road king to be an end man in Dock stader's justly famous show. But if Odell laughed he went down in the basement where no one could hear him. And Hughes never cracked smile. He was in deadly earnest any way. He generally is.
 Almost Broke the Roof Out.
 Mir. Hartman is given to being play ful and humorous that way. There was once when he tried to take--or everybody supposed he was trying to take-the Northern Pacific away from Morgan and Hill. Wall street in all its strenuous career has scarcely ever seen such time as that. Hartman and his people bought Northern Pacific right and left and high and low-most- ly high. The way that stock went up was scandalous and heartbreaking. Then, when he had all he wanted, or thought he had, Hartman called In his loaned stock, and there was more trouble. A whole bunch of people were caught short. and Northern Pa cific hit the Stock Exchange ceiling so hard that 1t almost broke the roof out There was wild scurrying to keep some of the oldest houses from going broke. For a time 1t looked like panic. and many a poor lamb lost not only his wool, but his pelt, and was lucky if he escaped with his life.
 Some time afterward Mir. Hartman in testifying before the interstate com merce commission said that the pub lie had been under a curious mlsap- ! prehenslon as to that Northern Pacific 1 corner. He said that he had not tried l to get control of the road at all. Eyi l. dently another joke. Oh. but 1t was funny. But those who lost their for l tunes in the scrimmage may be par doned if they do not appreciate the i side splitting nature of the affair. When one Is held up in q back alley l and relieved of all his valuables. be- | sides being clubbed half to death. 1t 1. sort of takes the fine edge off of bis l sense of humor It may be funny to I the foOtpad and other people. but l scarcely to the victim.
 The upshot of that Northern Pacific l