The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1908-03-06
Their business was fy catching.

IL
did not count. The three were Gold
stein, the stout Jew; Jefferson. the
lean American, and Bludgeon, an
Englishman, who looked as If he had
kept door at a boxing club and pros
pered 60 higher but not necessarily
aolier things.
The secretary was meek, cool, ef-
hcient and unobtrusive. He lid as
me was told, trembled when he was
spoken 10 and looked afraid.
Goldstein was a resplendent per-
son. His hat and boots were of the
glossiest; his coat was Immaculate; /;
his taste in fancy waistcoats was
doggy to degree, but did not get
dangerously doggy; his trousers hung
with an accuracy which Is only seen
on the musical comedy stage and in
the higher walks OF shady finance
His tailoring was good. But no tailor
could discount the face, with its
pendulous rolls OF unhealthy flesh;
Ghe dull eye that cleaned snakelike
shough dim with drink and good
Diving, and the predatory mouth,
Irom which teeth started buck
teeth, fanglike, and stained with to-
iDaccO. He sat over the web and
watched the flies come, talked to
ahem as they hung on the net, and
wOve the silken death strands round
them.
Jefferson was the very reverse.
His spare frame was clothed in blue
serge. His face had something OF
the hawk in it--a cold, calculating
expression, as Of one who preyed for
pleasure. lie stood in the background
and wove the net that caught the
ny. He wrote the advertisements.
Bludgeon was the bully. His brass
voice frightened women and intimi-
dated men. 1t was he who challenged
assault and braZened things out when
the Jews heart failed him before the
bigger and angry. insects who pro-
tested at their treatment in the net
They were partners, and daily put
the fear Of death by starvation into
the head of the secretary, Dobbs
They delighted to believe they kept
his nerves quivering. It was a part
of their creed that man works best
who can be kept at the nice cx-
Sreme which draws nerves to their
highest tension without inducing
prostratlon. So they kept him on the
raCk. A~
They did everything three
partners. They swindled PEOPLE in
nocent Of the city by dealing in op-
dons they never bought They had
nice pickings on fictitious margins. /
They played ,battledore and shuttle
cock with all sorts OF people over
borrowed money ana they didn't start
lending under fifty per cent, and
usually finished off somewhere about
32O. They carried on a nice little
game over packets OF shares, selling "A
good line or two for appearances
sake with three or four lines, ho-
cussed in pre-prospectus days, for
che sake OF profit. They would lend
you money on houses or land, and
you were lucky II you had either
money, houses or land in the end
Sometimes they would rig out little
company Of their own and collar
everything nothing to the
subscribers at a genuine diamond
mine price, and getting further fat
by the process OF buying i'm and sell
ing out until the company was so
much like financial carrion that not
even the most innocent fly could
stand the odor.
For headquarters they had n hand
some place in Doobrown street. near
che Mansion House, and we'll in the
charmed circle OF the Eastcheap dis
trict, packed full of clerks and type
writers, boys in buttons and men i'm
livery. To the unsophisticated il
looked like a money making mill for
che clients, but TO the people who
knew It was a mill which ground not
slowly but exceeding sure, its food
being the fool, and its purpose being
GO separate him from is money.
Their biggest effort was happening
at the time this story opened. The
Redsand looked like being a boom.
Boys" said Goldstoin. in his fat
F'lNNI ~ MS PARTNERS, may die li
chis ain't good thing, ir it ain't the
Oest thing that ever vas"
Bludgeon stood listening with his
mouth open.
Jeffersons thin lips crinkled.
NThrce hundred thousand pounds. by
gosh, in one handful out of the Brit
ssh public he said.
An all for nothink," snufrel
Bludgeon.
Haven't told you.- scowled
Goldstein, mot to speak the truth?
II i nst for nothink-it's a pinch for
the public. Vat l say is, we give 'em
a gold mine. and, IL l do, we do"
we give the mugs a gold mine.
or course" said Bludgeon, as IL re-
peating a lesson.
And a very good gold mine. too.
Y think" Jefferson added. Its true
there amt enough gold i'm Il TO tip
cigarette Without only three men
fbat auI fhnv NJ, ~,..I