Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1907-01-02

1t, and perhaps my readers may dis
cover even in this narrative, though
it is necessarily egotistic, evidence of
at least an honest effort not to be
BADLY boastful. Monson would have
liked to make of me self-deprecating
sort OF person-such as he himself,
with the result that the other fellow
always got the prize and he got left.
But l would have none OF it.
All this time was giving myself
or thought l was giving myself
chiefly to my business, as usual.
know now that the new interest had
in fact crowded the things down town
far into the background, had impaired
my judgment, had suspended my COM
| mon sense; but l had no inkling of
this them The most important mat
ter that was occupying me down town
was pushing textile up toward par.
Langdons doubts, little though they
influenced me, still made enough of an
impression to cause me to test the
market. l sold for him at ninety, as
he had directed; l sold in quantity
every day. But no matter how much
| unloaded, the price showed no ten
dency to break
This" said to myself, ''is a testi-
| monial to the skill with which pre-
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
had worked to establish in the public
confidence.
felt that, If my matrimonial plans
should turn out as 1 confidently ex-
pected, l should need a much larger
fortune than l had-for l was deter
mined that my wife should have an
establishment second to none. Ac-
cordingly, l enlarged my original
plan. had intended to keep close to
Langdon in that plunge; I believed I
controlled the market, but l 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 on the
general principle that surprise and
treachery are part of the code of high
finance, l had prepared to guard, first,
against being taken in the rear by
secret change of plan on Langdon's
part, and second, against being in
volved and overwhelmed by sudden
secret attack on him from some aSso-
clate of his who might think he had
laid himself open to successful raid
ing.
n iC oil
toward Christmas and in the spring
toward Christmas the big fellows oft
en- 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.
say, 1 had intended to be cautious.
l 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 I had I'M
loaded for Langdon, to continue it I'M
til the stock was at par. l had no
difficulty in pushing it to ninety-seven,
| and ] was not alarmed when l found
| myself loaded up with it, quoted at
ninety-eight for the preferred and
thirty for the common. 1 assumed
that I was practically it's only sup
porter and that it would slowly settle
back as I slowly withdrew my sup
port.
To my surprise, the stock did not
yield Immediately under my efforts to
depress it. l sold more heavily; tex
| tile continued to show tendency to
| rise. 1 sold still more heavily; it
broke a point or two, then steadied
and rose again. Instead of sending
out along my secret lines for inside
| information, as 1 should have done,
and would have done had l not been
| in state of hypnotized Judgment
| went to Langdon! l who had been
| studying those scOundrels for twenty
odd years, and dealing directly with
and for them for ten years!
He wasn't at his office; they told
me there that they didn't know
whether he was at his town house or
at his place in the country-''prob-
ably in the country" said his down
town secretary, with elaborate care
lessness. He wouldn't be likely to
stay away from the Office or not to
send for me, if he were in town, would
he?"
1t takes an uncommon good liar to
| lie to me when I'm on the alert. AS
was determined to see Langdon, was
| in so far on the alert. And l felt the
fellow was lying. That's reasonable"
said 1. Call me up, if you hear from
him. l want to see him-important,
but not immediate" And went away,
having left the impression that /
would make no further effort.
1 went up to his house. You, no
doubt, have often seen and often ad-
mired it's beautiful facade. SO simple
that it hides it's own magnificence
from all but experienced eyes, so per-
/ -