Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1906-09-21
ON THE TRAIL OF LANGDoN.

! had Monson with me twice each
Week-day-early in the morning and
again after business hours until bed
time. Also he spent the whole OF
every Saturday and Sunday with me-
he developed astonishing dexterity
as teacher, and as soon as he real.
lied that had no false pride and was
thoroughly in earnest, he handled me
without gloVes-like boxing teacher
who finds that his pupil has the gri,
OF a professional. 1t was easy enough
lor me to grasp the theory of my new
DWlness-it was nothing more than
cf"Be natural" But the rub came in
making myself naturally of the right
sort | had-as | suppose every man
OF Intelligence and decent instincts
nas-a disposition to be friendly and
Simple. But my manner was BY ma,
lure what you might call abrupt. My
not very easy task was to learn the
subtle difference between the abrupt
that injects a tonic into social intsf
course, and the abrupt that makes the
other person shut up with feeling Of
having been Insultes - "A "a
4 Then, there Was the matter of good
taste in conversation. .Monson found
as soon saw, that my everlasting
self-assertiveness was beyond cure. Al
said to him: I'm afraid you Nigh,
easier succeed in reducing my chest
measure But We worked away al
1t, and perhaps my readers may dis
cover even in this narrative, though
1t is necessarily egotistic, evidence Of
at least an honest effort not to be
BADLY boastful. Monson would have
liked to make of me. self-deprecatins
sort OF person-such as he himself
with the result that the other fellow
always got the prize and he got left
But would have none of it.
All this time was giving myself
or thought | was giving myself
chiefly. to my business, as usual. !
know now that the new interest had
In fact crowded the things down town
lar into the background, had impaired
my Judgment, had suspended my com,
mon sense; but l had no ihkling OF
this then. The most important mat.
TER that was occupying me down town
was pushing textile up toward par
Langdon's doubts, little though thew
lnnuenced me, still made enough of an
impression to cause me to test the
market. / sold for him at ninety as
ne had directed; | sold in quantity
every day. But no matter how much
unloaded, the price showed no ten
dency to break.
This" said to myself, rs a testi
monial to the skill with which | pre
r
pared for my bull campaign" And
that seemed to me-all unsuspicious
as then was-a sufficient explanation
OF the steadiness of the stock which
i had worked to establish in the public
confidence.
l lelt that'a If my matrimonial plans
should turn out as I confidently ex
pected, | should need a much larger
fortune than | had-for | was deter
mined that my wife should have an
establishment second to none Ac
cordingly, | enlarged my original
plan had intended to keep close to
angdon in that plunge; believed !
Controlled the market, but I hadn't
been in Wall street twenty years with.
'out learning that the worst thunder
bolts fall from cloudless skies. With.
out being In the least suspicious Of
Langdon, and simply acting 81 TIE
general principle that surprise and
! treachery are part Of the code Of high
finance, | had prepared to guard, first
against being taken in the rear by a
secret change Of plan on Langdon's
part, and second, against being in.
volved and overwhelmed by a sudden
secret attack on him from some asso
ciate Of his who might think he had
laid himself open to successful raid.
ling.
The market Is especially dangerous
toward Christmas and in the spring
toward Christmas the big fellows Oft.
en- 1uggle the stocks to get the money
Tor 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.
say, had intended to be cautious.
abandoned caution and rushed in
boldly, feeling that the market was,
In general, safe and that textile was
under my control-and that / was one
Of the kings Of high finance, with my
lucky star in the zenith. decided to
continue my bull campaign on my own
account for two weeks after had I'm.
loaded for Langdon, to continue 1t IN
I'll the stock was at par. had no
difficulty in pushing it to ninety-seven,
and ] was not alarmed when found
myself loaded up with it, quoted at
ninety.eight for the preferred and
thirty for the common. l assumed
that l was practically Its only sup.
porter and that it would slowly settle
back as l slowly withdrew my sup
port.
To my surprise, the stock did not
yield Immediately under my efforts to
depress 1t. | sold more heavily; tex.
file continued IN chnw n tandonnv IN