The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-07-02
lHyind Horse with tke President

MI dent of the Dover-Harris Special M tv company more than month befora he had reason to think he had wade, a mistake. A few weeks later he was sure of 1t, but he did not appreciate his bl1nder in It's fulness until he had been in office three months.
 l He had accepted the presidency at the solicitation of MT. Dover, and had be- lieved implicitly what MT. Dover had said regarding the company. Mir. Dover was candid about his own inability to manage the business. He was not a good execu- tive. did not know how to handle men, did not know how to direct to advantage the factory end of the concern, had only a general knowledge of salesnanship, and in addition had no taste for the multi tude of worries and the mass of detail that fell to the head Of the company. :. To free himself of all this and to get the business on 8. sound, good basis he had approached MT. Pierson The salary he suggested was alluring, the outline he n rave of the company's condition and pros ] poets was reasonable, and Mir. Pierson's s examination cursory. as it was, bore out what Mir. Dover had set forth.
 Probably if MT. Pierson had been en- tirely happy in the position he filled pre- Eious to receiving the offer from MT. Dover he would have hesitated. But MT Dover was SO charming and needed Mr' Pierson's help 50 much that MT. Plerson gave LID his old position as early as he ro,,Id xr,th good grace To move his fam il,, to Chicago, furnish a new house and get. settled there cost quite a sum. He berrrdred the money, because he was not able to take so many shares ln the special company as he desired. MT Do- yer had agreed to let him have 1oo snares at s75 a share, and he had been able to nurchase only 80. He had been so san gujne of making success of the man. hrement that he had prevailed upon one of his friends to take some shares at the same price.
 Every man has at least one weakness. Tn MT. Pierson's case it was faith Ill any nerson for whom he entertained high re- gard The first time he met MT. Dover he was attracted to him strongly. Few persons could make better hrst inl- pression than Henry Dover He was so kindly. spoke so interestingly and had so charming a manner that he won con fdence at once His eyes were wonder- ful Even if his voice had not been so smooth and meIodfous his eyes would have adde. strength to anything he said. They were snsularly expressive. Had he been hir and robust they would not have suit ed him so well, but he was small, deacate locking and slightly lame.
 Sympathetic men like Pierson got an idea when they met Dover that he' hao a bit of the poet or touch of genius about him. Later on they knew ne had little or no poetry in his make-up' Nbut they were certain about the genus. His particular kind of genius was Tn aaking people believe what he said. lie \ lad no more business ability than cat ut he would have made great sue cess as promoter.
 MT. Pierson had been surprised and then shocked to find things different from what he had expected MT. Dover had lied. MT. Pierson became alarmed He sent for MT. Dover and taxed nm with having misrepresented the situa- tion MT. Dover looked on wretched and grief stricken that MT. Pierson felt sor- ry Mr. Dover wept a little. MT. Pier son could not bear the sight of man weeping and said so MT. Dover begged Pierson to forgive him. It was terrible to have deceived in even slight de- gree man for whom he had such deep regard. he said. but he needed Pierson so much and was so fearful he woulo not accept the presidency if he knew the company's condition that Dover had not the courage to tell him the facts. Pierson assured Dover it would have heen all right If the facts had been told and pledged Dover to the utmost | candor in the future. The men parted 2 reconcied.
 But it was not for long. Pierson had supposed the company owned its fac- tory. He discovered 1t was mortgaged for more than 65 per cent of it's value. He supposed Dover owned controlling interest in the company, but he found Dover had every share of his holdings hypothecated and had borrowed from everybody whom he could get to lend him money. He had thought the ex- travagant contracts Dover had entered into for material, for handling the com
 fn- arn things were the results of Dovers lack of business knowledge, but he learned the contracts had been entered into in most cases after Dover had obtained so much money from the contractors that they could force him to sign anything