The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-11-09

pearls. I even left off the magnificent
diamond ! had Worn FOR years on my
little iinger-but l didn't give away
that stone; l put il by for resettinS
into an engagement ring, However,
wetn l was IS quietly dressed as ii
was possible for g gentleman To be-,
he still studied me CAUTIOUSLY, when he
tbousiIt L wasn't seeing him. And I
recall that he said once: Its your
face. Blackjack. Ii YOU could only
manage to look TESS like a Spanish bull
daShing into the ring, gazing jogfully
about for somebody to gore n toss!"
"But l can't" said I. And l would
MT if l could-because that's me-"
one Saturday he brought a dancing
master Town to my country place
Dawn Hill. which bought OF the Du-
elcd. l saw what the mans business
was the instant / looked at him |
left him in the hall and took Monsoon
into my den.
Not for me-" I protested. There's
where l draw the Zine"
You DON'T understands he urged.
This fellow. this Alphonse Lynch, out
in the hall there, isn't going to teach
YOU dancing so that YOU may dance,
but so that you shall be less awk-
! Ws,fU IN strange company.
My walk suits me" said l. And
I don't fall over furniture or trip peo-
pie up
True enough" he answered. Blu
you haven't the complete control OF
ya;r body that'N make you uneon-
! hy q butler into a room full of people
:ltl suspect of being u~nfliendly and
~Sitical."
Net until he used his authority as
Observation-Disclosures, did I yield. 1t
may seem absur to some for a seri-
Gus man like me %solernnly to caper
about in imitation of a scraping, grim
acing French-Irishman; but Monson
was light, and 1 haven't in the least
minded the ridicule he has brought on
me by tattling this n the other things
everywhere, since he turned against
for the crowds of chuckleheads to
laugh where they ought to applaud:
their habit is to laugh and to applaud
in the wrong places. There's no part
of my career that Tn prouder of than
the whole of this thorough course of
not trifles. To have been ignorant is
no disgrace; the disgrace comes when
one persists in ignorance III glories
in it.
Yet those who make the most pre-
tensions in this topsy-turvy Of a world
SSoAu ~ oo q SA'S GU = AiSSNS wv
obscure and ignorant, and pride them
selves upon their persistence in their
own kin of obscurity and Ignorance!
No wonder the few strong men do
about as they please with such a race
of miscompoopery. If they didn'tg grow
All this time l was giving myself-or
thought 1 was giving myself-chiefly to
my business, as usual. l know now that
the new interests a in fact crowded
the things down town far into the
background, had impaired my judg-
ment, had suspended my common
sense; but I had no fnkling of this
then. The most important matter that
was occupying me down town was
pushing Textile up toward par. Lang
don's doubts, little though they influ-
enced me. still made enough of an i'm
preston to cause me to test the mar
ket. I sold for him at ninety, as he
had directed; I sole in quantity every
day. But no mattel how much I un-
loaded, She price showed no tendency
to break.
This" said 1 to myself. SIS a testi-
monial to the skill with which 1 pre-
pared for my bull campaign" And
that seemed to me-all ~unsusptcious as
I then was-a sufficient explanation Of
the steadiness Of the stock which I
had worked to establish in tine public
! confidence.
1 felt that, If my matrimonial plans
should turn out as I confidently ex-
pected, 1 should need a much larger
fortune than I had-for I was deter
mined that my wife should nave an
establishment second to none. Accord
ingly. 1 enlarged my original plan. I
had intended to keep close to Langdon
in that plunge; I believed I controlled
the market, but 1 hadn't been in Wall
street twenty years without learning
that the worst thunderbolts fall from
Alo,,JlNrr r1y;Hr yH;t1,rJ,f 1oi,,p In the
least suspicious of Langdon, and sim
ply acting on the general principle that
surprise and treachery are part of the
cod of high finance, 1 had prepared to
guard, first, against being taken in the
rear by a secret change of plan on
L~angdon's part, and, second, against
being involved and overwhelmed by a
sudden secret attack on him from some
associate of his who might think he
had laid himself open to successful
raiding.
The market is especially dangerous
toward Christmas and in the spring
toward Christmas the big fellows Of
ten juggle the stocks to get the money
for their big Christmas gifts and aims;
toward spring the motive is, Of course,
the extra summer expenses of their
families and the commencement gifts
to colleges. 1t was now late in the
spring.
L say I had intended to be cautious.
1 abandoned caution and rushed in
boldly, feeling that the market was,
in general, safe and that Textile was
under my control-and that I was one
OF the kings of high finance, with my
lucky star in the zenith. 1 decided to
continue my bull campaign on my own
account for two weeks after l had UNI
loaded for Langdon, to continue it un-
til the stock was at par. l had no diff
ficulty in pushing it up to n~inety-sev-
en-, and l was not alarmed when ]
found myself loaded up with 1t, quoted
at ninety-eight for the preferred and
thirty for the. common. l assumed that
I was practically its only supporter
and that it would slowly settle back
as I slowly withdrew my support.
To my surprise, the stock did not
yield Immediately under my efforts tic
depress it. l sold more heavily; Tex
tile continued to show a tendency te
rise. 1 sold still more heavily; il
broke a point or two, then steadied ant
rose again. Instead of sending ou1
along my secret lines for inside infer-
I,@,, 1,11-n dave r,c