The Washington herald., 1908-03-22

only his own fortune. but the fortunes OF
in the enterprise.
Even while his Wall street enemies
were gloating over their supposed annihi-
lation of the wizard Of the West he had
squared his shoulders. conceived a rail-
road enterprise even more daring than
his first and was actually securing CO
operation from some of his former back
ers and friends who had not lost conf
dence in him through his great defeat.
The new scheme called for a railroad
stretching from Kansas City to Mexico
with steamer connection with the Orient
Armed with few letters of introduction
and the same colossal nerve that had
caused him TO start the construction of
his first railroad on a mere $4,000 that he
had managed TO save from his earnings
as travelling salesman and life insurance
agent, he went to Mexico City to lay his
plans before President Diaz and. if pos
sible. through him 10 secure the support
/ of the Mexican government
/ He got the interview without much trOu-
bic. Mexico just then was most keen TO
have railroads built. But before he could
get down TO ''tacks" Diaz volunteered the
information that while his visitor was on
the way South he had been bombarded
with messages from the States. those
sent from Wall street warning him to
have nothing to do with such a scoundrel,
those from Western governors singing his
/ praises
There was silence for a moment when
the President finished telling the incident
Then, with each man looking the other
squarely in the eye, the President added
quietly;
| Il fled the messages from your friends
and those from your enemies 1 burned. ="
/ 1t wasn't long after this interview that
Stillwell secured a sufficiently large sub
sidy from the Mexican government TO per
NIT him to go ahead with his new rail
road enterprise on a large scale.
Willard went Broke
The late Henry Willard was another
man who went broke" with railroad
the Northern Pacific. He secured victory
again through a railroad-the same North
ern Pacific; and victory was largely his
because his friends and hackers in the
old country also believed in him in spite
of his defeat and the losses caused them
thereby. II was the Northern Pacific
also. that primarily caused the financial
/ defeat of the celebrated civil war banker,
Jay Cooke in 1873. who, in the latter
years of his life, enjoyed the fruits of a
striking victory after defeat
Starting without cent after his failure
as curb broker in San Francisco in the
'70s, James r. Keene, whose father
went West to retrieve the family fortunes,
waged a bear campaign on the Bonanza
Mine stocks. thereby making himself a
millionaire. These millions and a good
many others he had managed to secure in
the meanwhile he dropped when he failed
to corner the worlds wheat market At
that time he also got rid OF g, 900, 600 that
he didn't own. Less than a decade later
he had paid back this borrowed fortune
with interest and had a snug fortune to
his own credit in the banks.
Edmund Clarence Stedman, known na-
| tionally as the banker-poet and whose
death was recorded short time ago.
gained notable financial victory two
years after his defeat and proved II by
! paying his Indebtedness in full-Ss0o. .OOo.
mat was about a quarter OF a century
ago. Very much more recently Mark
Twain overcame a personal deficit Of a
half million or SO BY bravely going on a