Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1907-05-08

Il
think SO poorly of you as your at
tempt to fool me seems to compel
But he was unconvinced. i've
found he intends to abandon the ship
and leave me to go down with it, y he
persisted. He believes he can escape
| and denounce me as the arch rascal
who planned the combine, and can
convince people that l fooled him
| into it,
Ingenious; but I happened to know
that it was false Pardon me, Mr..
| Langdon," said I with stiff courtesy.
Il repeat, can do nothing for you.
Good morning" And I went at my
work as if he were already gone
Had been vindictive, would have
! led him out to huniliate himself
more deeply, if greater depths OF
| humiliation there are than those to
| which he voluntarily descended. But
| wished to spare him; let him see
the uselessness of his mission. He
looked at me in silence-the look of
hate that can come only from crea-
| ture weak as we'll as wicked. think
| it was all his keen sense of humOr
| could do to save him from a melo-
dramatic outbreak. He slipped into
his habitual pose, rose and withdrew
| without another word. All this fright
and groveling and treachery for plum
| der, the loss of which would not i'm.
| pair his fortune-plunder he had
stolen with many 4 jest and gibe at
his helpless victims. Like most of our
Qton OF la11, ,,
good sportsman only when the game
was with him.
That afternoon he threw his Coal
holdings on the market in great
blocks. His treachery took Roebuck
completely by surprise-for Roebuck
believed in this fair-weather gentle
man" fouIweather coward, and neg
lected to allow for that quicksand that
is always under the foundation Of the
man who has inherited, not earned.
his wealth. But for the laundering
credulity of rascals, would honest
men ever get their dues. Roebuck's
brokers had bought many thousands
of Langdon's shares at the high arti-
fetal price before Roebuck grasped
the situation-taat it was not MY fol-
| lowers 2cckless.y. rambling to break
the prices. out Lar gdon unloading on
his pai." AS 500 as he saw, he
abruptly Withdrew from the market.
When the Stock Exchange closed, Ma
tional Coal securities were offered at
prices ranging from II for the bonds
to two for the common and three for
the preferred-offered, and no takers.
| well, you've done it," said Joe.
coming with the news that Thornley,,
of the Discount and Deposit bank, had
been appointed receiver.
I've made beginning" replied l.
| / had decided to concentrate upon
Roebuck, because he was the richest
and most powerful of The Seven"
For, in my pictures of the three main
phases of ''finance'-the industrial,
the life insurance and the banking
he, as arch plotter in every kind OF
respectable skuldVSgery, was neees-
sarily in the foreground. My original
intention was to demOlish the Power
Trust or, at least, to compel him to
buy back all of it's stock which he had
worked off on the public. had col
lected many interesting facts about it,
| facts typical of the conditions that
of our industries.
For instance, / was prepared to
show that the actual earnings OF the
| Power Trust was two and half times
what its reports to stockholders al
| legged: that the concealed profits were
| diverted into the pockets of Roebuck,
his sons, IL other relatives and four
| OF The Seven" the lions share go
| ing, or course, TO the lion. Like al
most all the great industrial enter
priseS, too strong for the law and too
remote for the supervision OF their
stockholders, it gathered in enormous
| revenues to disbursc them chiefly in
salaries and commissions and rake
| offs ON contracts TO favOrites. / had
proof that in one year it had written
off, II millions of profit and loss, 10
millions of which had found its way
to Roebuck's pocket.
/ had no choice l must turn aside
| from Roebuck; 1 must first show that,
| while Textile was, in sense, SQUAD
just at that time, it had been unsound,
| and would be unsound again as soon
as LangdOn had gathered in suf1i-
cient number of lambs to make a
battue worth the while of a man deal
ing in nothing less than seven figures
l proceeded TO do so.
! The market yielded slowly. Under
my first days attack Textile preferred
fell six points, Textile common three.
| While l was in the midst of debating
my letter for the second days attack,
l suddenly came to a fun stop II
| found across my way this thought:
Isn't it strange that Langdon. after
humbling himself to you, should make
this bold challenged? It's trap"
No more at present" said /. to my
| stenographer And don't write out
| what I've already dictated"