Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1906-10-19

lOcheu neFSGlf IN DehlnQ Il IrOZe
haughtiness that ignored me. "Ah, her
is the carriage" she said. | followe
!, her to the curb; she just touched m
hand, just nodded her fascinating littl
= head.
= See you Saturday, old man." Gale
her brother friendly. My lowerin
face had alarmed him.
: That party is off" said 1 CURLY. An
q l lifted my hat and strobe away.
: As | had formed the habit of dis
: missing the disagreeable, / soon put he
out of my mind. But she took with he
= my joy in the taste OF things. | couldn'
y get back my former keen satisfaction
= i'm all / a done and was doing. TIL,
J luxury, the tangible evidences of m,
achievement. no longer gave me pleas
{ ure; they seemed to add to my irrita
l ton.
That's the way it is in life. We LOAD
, ourselves down with toys like SO manN
greedy children: then we see another
, toy n drop everything to be free t
seize it; n if we cannot we'r,
wretched.
| worked myself up, or rather, down
to such a mood that when my office boy
told me Mr.. Langdon would like ms
to come TO his office as soon as ii was
convenient, | snapped out: The he'll
he does! Tell Mr.. Langdon I'll be glad
to see him here whenever he calls
l. nat was STUPIDITY q premature aSSer-
tion OF my right to be treated as an
equal. / had always gone to Langdon,
and to any other of the rulers of
finance, whenever | had got a sum-
mons. For, while | was rich and pow
erful, | held both wealth and power, in
a sense, on sufferance; / knew that, so
long as | had no absolute control Of
any great department of industry, these
rulers could destroy me should they de-
eide that they needed my holdings or
were not satisfied with my use of my
power. There were a good many peo-
pie who did not realize that property
rights had ceased to exist, that prop
erty had become a revocable grant from
the "plutocrats." l was not of those
misguided ones who had failed to dis
cover the new fact concealed in the old
form. So I used TO go when / was sum-
moned.
But not that day. However, no soon
er was my boy gone than l repented the
imprudence. But what of II" said l
to myself. mo matter how the thing
turns out, / shall be able to get some
advantage" For it was part of my
philosophy that a proper boat with
proper sails and a proper steersman
can gain in any wind. / was surprised
when Langdon appeared in my office
a few minutes later.
He was a tallish, slim man, carefully
dressed, with a bored, weary look and
a slow, bored way of talking. l had al
ways said that If I had not been myself
l should have wished to be Langdon.
Men liked and admired him; women
loved and ran after him. Yet he ex-
erted not the slightest effort to please
anyone; on the contrary, he made 1T
distinct and clear that he didn't care
a rap what anyone thought of him or,
for that matter, of anybody or any
thing. He knew how to get, without
sweat or s~natching, all the good there
was In whatever fate threw in his way
and he was one of those men into
whose way fate seems to strive to put
everything worth having. His business
judgment was shrewd, but he cared
nothing for the big game he was play |
ing except as a game. Like myself, he
was simply q sportsman-and, I think,
that is why we liked a other. He
have trusted almost anyone that
came into contact with him; but he
trusted nobody, n frankly warned
everyone not to trust him-a safe
frankness, for his charm caused it to
be forgotten or ignored. He would do
anything to gain an object, however
trivial, which CHANGED to attract him;
it was his, he would throw it aside
as carelessly as an ill-fitting collar.
His expression, as he came into my
office, was one of cynical amusement,
as IL he were saying to himself: Our
friend Blackjack has caught the swollen
at last" Not a suggestion of III
humor, or resentment at my imperti-
nence-for. in the circumstances, / had
been guilty of an impertinence. Just
languid, amused patience with the
frailty of a friend. Il see," said he,
that you ave got Textile up to
eighty-five."
He was the head of the Textile trust
ttFhInh kn1 hnA~ h,,tl1 T., Ia. al
in-law and had fallen to him in the
following his brother-in-
death. AS he was just then need
some one for his share In the
Coal undertaking, he had di-
me to push Textile up toward
par and unload him of two or three
hundred thousand shares-he, of course.
to repurchase the shares after he had
taken profits and Textile had dropped
back to it's normal fifty.
I'll have 1t up to ninety-eight by the
middle of next month" said l. And
there / think we'd better stop"
Stop at about ninety" said he. That
will give me all l find I'll need for this
business. / don't want to be
with hunting up an invest
ment."
Il shook my head. Il must put it up
to within a point or two of par" / de-
In my public letter I'VE been
IL would go above ninety-fiye,
! never deceive my public
He smiled-my notion OF honesty al
amused him. "As you please"
he said with q shrug. Then / saw q
serious look-just q fleeting flash of
v~arnints-behind his smiling mask:
and he added care,essly: BE careful
about your own personal play. / doubt
Textile a be put n higher"
1t must nave been my mood that pre-
those words from making the
impression on me they should have
nade. Instead Of approaching at once
md at Its full value this characteristic
amazingly friendly signal Of eau
ion, l showed o stupidity inattentive
was by saying: Something doing?
Something new"
But he a already gone further than
his notion OF friendship warranted. So
replied: "Oh, no.. Simply that
uncertain nowadays
My mind had been all this time on
Manasquale mining properties.
said: Has Roebuck told you that
a to buy those mines on my own ,
l%ccount?"
YES" he said. He hesitated. and ,
'gain he gave me a look whose mean
ng came to me only when 1t was too
ate. Il think, Blackjack. you'd better
urn them over to me-"
II can't" | answered. Il gave my
,
AS you please" said he.
Apparently the matter didn't intar-