The San Francisco call., 1908-07-19

ments, the pickax man and the land
scape gardeners. In turn that money
came back into the Golfers of the trust
company. And the proftsl The tri-
umvirate were getting rich. And they
We're what they ever had been, solid
well known businessmen In ten years
more they would be millionaires in fact
as well as in name.
Cadwalader was threadman-still
threadn1an. He knew the business
from the cotton seed up to the seam
that the finished article sewed. Alert,
careful, cautious, he noted suddenly
that raw cotton was on the decline in
price. He shifted He had watched and
waited for this to happeA through
many weary months. In the back of
his head he had a safe. sane business
plan, cut and dried. ready for imme-
diate use at an instant's notice. Yet he
did nothing. He merely waited.
Suddenly the cotton buying world
went mad. Sell cotton" was the cry,
sell, sell, sell!'
Nobody knew why cotton was SELL
ing-save the Universal thread con-
Germ. The Universal thread concern
had made up it's mind to buy the
worlds cotton at nothing pound or
better. to manufacture thread and sell
it at cut throat prices and clean up
every independent manufacturer that
was left. Cadwalader was one of these.
He had seen cotton go up and so
down to it's limits. Cotton was COM
modify. not stock. 1t had its intrin
sic value. 1t had gone to is once 1t
had gone to once. But It's real
value never had changed. Cadwalader
understood and watched.
1t was a spectacular raid and at
tracted much attention. One day Fer
tig came into the trust company build
ing. and closed the door behind him.
Boys" he said, I've turned $4,000
selling cotton short. And there's the
check. 1 sold at eight bought at six
and a half" They gasped. They went
down to Wall street and investigated.
They were none of them fools. They
dreaded the fire. But their investiga-
tion. sweeping as it was, satisfied them.
They had real inside information, and
that inside information assured them
beyond doubt that cotton would touch
three before it rose. They turned In
their orders.
Sell cotton" yelled their brokers,
with a hundred other brokers; sell,
sell, sell!' 1t made no difference
whether 1t was December or May. All
the cotton of the world was being
sold The triumvirate went back to
Cadwalader Wen stop at T." they
said, lit won't reach that price for at
least week
''And by the way" suggested Pan
taneous. don't forget we've got to go
before the common council tonight and
change the name of this town. The
name of Cadwalader is a hoodoo. Well
get better name than that"
The name of Campion," suggested
Peter, the contractor.
"Or, Pantaneous," suggested the vice
president of the trust company.
''Fertig has em frizzled TO a fraz-
zle." said the counselor at law.
Over in New York dozen cotton
brokers were selling cotton short for
the Universal thread concern. They
had their instructions to bear cotton,
not to three, but to four. and then to
buy, buy buy. 1t is difficult to bear
a good commodity, but they did 1T.
Sell, sell. SELL" they cried. At four
and a half one broker only began to
buy. His name was Terhune. He
was an obscure broker, picking up odd
lots here and there as a rule. and now
he was almost unnoticed. But sud
denly he stepped into the breach and
began to buy furiously.
Buy at four and a half" he cried,
buy. buy. buy
Sell at four and a half" yelled the
dozen brokers. They had no doubt of
their ability to carry the price to four.
They had TO do IL, that was all. But
Terhune's piping voice kept on.
Buy at four and a half"
Suddenly the gavel fell. And then
the news came out, all in a flash. Ter
hume, the modest broker. had bought
cotton to some purpose. He had
bought the floating cotton of the world
at four and half.
His customer was Cadwalader. Cad
walader had not sold short. He had
not, bought stock. He had bought a
substance measured by pounds and
bales-something that he owned: some
thing that could not be taken away
from him. provided he could pay for it
according to the terms of the pur-
chaser
When he told Irene, his wife. she
gasped. Why. Billy she exclaimed.
''you-you'll ruin yourself"
He laughed. Not much,'' he said.