The Nevada County picayune. (Prescott, Ark.) 190?-current, 1911-06-02

clambered aboard the somewhat pl-
laucal craft OF the promoters,
The wave receding, his fellow voy
egeurs had been hurried back. one by
one. into the obscurity whence they
issued, but Barr made land-and. in
cidentally, financial history.
In the old days as a drummer for
hardware house" Joe" Barr had earn
nd the reputation of the nerviest poker
player west of Chicago But he also
Fold goods, and when friend of his
conceived the idea of making a nail of
wire in place of iron the two had com
bined their slender resources and built
a plant for its manufacture. which de-
veloped until IL was finally promoted
into the wire nail trust. Barr found
himself In possession of an even $10.-
o00,0 600 and plenty OF time to tilt with
fortune.
! A brief survey of the field convinced
him that only In Wall street was the
1imit sufficiently indefinite and the
stakes great enough to justify his I'M
divided attention. He promptly form
ed the brokerage house OF Willis, Barr
az Co. with John Willis as stock ex-
change member and several of his
western friends as special partners,
and shuffled the pack preparatory to
making the bespectacled financiers in
cobweboed banking parlors sit up,
as he tersely put It.
And sit up they did. even to his, II
not their. entire satisfaction. They
sat up nights trying TO puzzle out
what this western gambler" as they
unanimously declared him to be, would
do next. In all things but one. Jo-
seph w. Barr walked with the hand
OF fortune, and II was out of this one
unfulfilled desire that came one of the
most amazing deals In the annals Of the
street
II you had looked In on the Wall
street Offices of Willis, Barr & Co.
where dozen tickers spun out their
miles OF fracuon-laden tape. each frac-
ton fortune lost or won, and where
rs many telegraph instruments flashed
messages to great cities affair. you would
have thought last of all that the short.
fat man. with so much double chin
that 1t scarcely yielded way to the silk
handkerchief stuffed beneath it, had
social ambitions. But he had
Fgo months before he had been
hopelessly blackballed at the most ex.
elusive club In the city. and Bars
soul still burned hot with anger at
the banker whom he knew to he re
sponsible. This man had stacked
the cards" he told his western friends,
and with this explanation went-the as
surance that he would somehow get
even If he went broke" doing IT,
And even as Barr watched the spin.
ming tape 1t was telling him that his
chance had come With the loose ends
OF his handkerchief he mopped his
face. a perpetual occupation of the
man. and each click. click Of the in
strument. translated. said to him
I've got him. I've got him. I've got
him"
Through the suhterranean channels
of Information with which the street IA
honeycombed Barr had learned some
thing a week before which led 10 n
long consultation with his partners
from the west At its end he had sent
for Sanford Pierce. the shrewdest ma
nipulator OF stocks the street had ever
known.
The place of the stock manipulation
In the economy of Wall street is so
clearly defined that while he holds be
tween his hands the fate of vast
schemes, some reputable. many not.
there is no known instance Of breach
OF trust on his part-his loyalty TO
his employers IS his stock in trade
Moreover in this instance Pierce was
man after Bars own heart, a
ecorner of puny tradition ana a hardy
soldier OF fortune on many fields.
Therefore in the privacy OF his own
ONCE Barr went straight to his work
and the other listene with something
like fellow artists appreciation OF
the cunning Of the thing-for ii was
the game of games-and brothers
sympathy for the genius of it all. the
hot wrath Of gambler thwarted
In the first place. Pierce began
Barr. with a smile that was far from
pleasant, 81 am going 10 tell you
frankly that I'm in this thing to salts
ty personal grudGe That will show
you how much confidence put in YOU
and to what lengths I'm rcsdy to go
10 carry it through 1t Is neither a
question Of spending money nor max.
ing it, although | guess we'll do both
before it's ever.