Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-04-23

five inches seemed to loom to the
height of a giant. His arms. witt
their fate-pointing fingers, rose and
fell with bewildering rapidity as his
piercing voice rang out-"5,Q00 al
SO, 6S, 65," 10000 at 63," $4,000 al
co." Panuemonium reigned. Every
man in the crowd seemed to have the
capital stock Of the Sugar trust to sell
and at any price. A score seemed to be
bent on selling as low as possible in
stead Of for as much as they could get
These were the shorts who had been
punished the day before by Bob's up
lift.
Poor Bob. he was forgotten! An in
slant after ne made his last effort he
was the dead cock in the pit. Frenzied
gamblers Of the stock exchange have
no more use for the dead cocks than
have Mexicans for the real birds when
they get the fatal gaff. The day after
the contest, or even that same night
at Delmonico's and the clubs, these
men would moan for poor Bob; Barry
Conant's moan would be the loudest Of
them all, and, what is more, 1t would
be sincere. But on battle day away
to the dump with the fallen bird, the
bird that could not win! saw look
Of deep, terrible agony spread over
Bob's face; and then in a flash he was
the Bob Brownley who I always boast
ed had the courage and the brain to
do the right thing in all circumstances.
To the establishment Of every man In
the crowd he let loose one wild yell, a
cross between the war-whoop of an
Indian and the bay Of a deep-lunged
hound regaining a lost scent. Then he
began to throw over Sugar stock,
right and left, in big and little
amounts. He slaughtered the price,
under-cutting Barry Conant's every
offer and filling every bid. For 20
minutes he was a madman, then he
stopped. Sugar was falling rapidly to
the price it finally reached, 80, and
the panic was in full swing. but panics
seemed now to have no interest for
Bob. He pushed his way through the
crowd and. joining me. said: Jim,
forgive me. I have dragged you into
an enormous loss, have ruined Beulah
Sands, her father and myself. ] think
at the last moment I did the only
thing possible. threw over the 160,-
900 shares and 80 cut off some Of our
loss. Let us go to the Office and see
where we stand" He was strangely,
unnaturally calm after that heart
crushing, nerve-tearing day. I tried to
tell him how 1 admired his cool nerve
and pluck in about facing and doing
the only thing there was left to do; to
tell him that required more real cour-
age and level-headedness than all the
rest Of the days doings; but he stop
ped me:
"Jim, don't talk to me. My conceit
Is gone. I have learned my lesson to-
day. Ny plans were all right, and
sound, but poor fool that was, did
not take into consideration the loaded
dice Of the master thieves. knew
what they could do, have seen them
scores Of times, as you have, at their
slaughter; seen them crush out the
hearts of other men just as good as
you or I; seen them take them out and
skin and quarter slice them, unmind-
full Of the agony of those who were
dead to and dependent on their own
ers, but 1t never seemed to strike me
home 1t was not my heart, and some-
how, I looked at 1t as a part Of the
game and let 1t go at that. Today /
know what 1t means to be put on the
chopping block Of the System BUTCH
and the heart Of one love-and yours,
too, Jim-systematically skewered to
those Of the hundreds and thousands
Of victims who have gone before. Jim,
we must be three millions losers, and
the men who have our money have SO
many, many millions that they can't
live long enough even to thumb them
over Men who will use our money
on the gambling table, at the race
tracks, squander 1t on stage harlots,
or in turning their wives and daugh-
ters or their neighbors' wives and
daughters into worse than stage har-
lots. Men, Jim who are not fit, meas
ured by any standard Of decency, to
walk the same earth as you and Judge
Sands. Men whose painted pets pol
lutte the very air that such as Beulaf
Sands must breathe. I've learned my
lesson today. 1 thought I knew the
game of finance, but I'm suddenly
awakened to a realization Of the dense
ignorance I wallowed in. Jim, but for
the loading Of the dice, I should now
have been taking Beulah Sands to her
father with the money that the hellish
System stole from him. Later should
have taken her to the altar, and after,
who knows but that should have had
the happiest home and family in all
the world, and lived as her people and
mine have lived for generations, hon.
est. God-fearing. law-abiding, neigh
BORROWING men and women, and then
died as men should die? But now,
Jim, see black. awful picture. No,
I'm not morbid, I'm going to make a
heroic effort to put the picture out Of
sight. but I'm afraid, Jim, I'm afraid" I"
(To be Continued).
Poor Writing.