The Nevada County picayune., 1911-07-21

glass door of which he could survey at a glance
 --I the long line of the banks A I outftting the fretted. tes-
 sxu.j sellated ceiling. with it's
 -l glittering mosaic domes, and the massy pillars of onyx, that chilled and frightened the common person who. by any accident. hap pened to find his way into the plu- tonic precincts of the bank itself.
 Bostwiek lived up town in one of the handsomest houses in New York. He sported line of touring cars, for which he had paid the usual $14,500 per car, any one of which, even with out the use of it's honker. was suftl- cient to make the average man feel low and contemptible in his own opin- ion. He contributed layishly to the campaign funds of both parties. and was just trife bothered whenever the president of the United States would say anything strong enough to attract the attention of the public at large He sometimes would condo scend to utter a few words on the business situation to the National Commercial Drummers' association. or to some other equally important organization. and his thoughts on such occasions were carefully consid- cred by all the business interests in all parts of the country and were cabied to London. Parts. and Berlin to be carefully considered there.
 When Bostwiek took his annual lit- tie jaunt to Europe he paid for his cabin accommodations price that would buy a suburban home for Ole of his clerks; tossed to the head stew ard hundred-dollar bill, and flung to the other serfs on the boat fat bun dle of fives to divide among them selves.
 Bostwiek was as solid with all the ministers of all the denominations as the Apostle Paul himself; perhaps a little more SO; and when he went to church cn he Sabbath hij refined sus- capabilities were never assailed by anything he did not care to hear His VI CID di0 et1 NCl1 uP III lIt iIolS of those who gave to religion or to charity: and he took an active inter est in all forward movements that aimed at the thorough reform of cor rupt political life, and at the swift and signal punishment or the prompt ex- tirpation of crime.
 In the course of several years of this kind of existence Bostwick had formulated for himself an estimate of his own position in the world in which he figured himself as one of the pillars of the social fabric and one of the necessary organs of the nations industrial vitality.
 The fundaments on which this esti- mate were based were these: He had financed some of the biggest tunnels in existence; he was the controlling hand in a score Of street railroad sys- tems in as many American towns; he was partner in nearly everything that had been paying twenty per cent. on the par value of the stock before 1t was watered; and when he wanted to know how many were tho com panies. corporations. concerns, and coalitions ill which he was one of the big chiefs. he had to send for his personal bookkeeper to supply him with the facts.
 And yet, do you know. never par ticularly cared for Bostwick, not even before LongWood told me that story about the Tropic Dawn, when Bostwick had tried to squeeze him in the panic of 1907. and came very near ly running Longwood over on the rocks. when a little money and a lit tie time would have floated him out clear and fair into safe and open Wa ter
 Considering that he was pillar of the social fabric, Bostwick had the queerest face you ever saw. His eyes were set so close together that he had to have the frame of his eye glasses built on special model. His cars were large and stood well out from the side of his head. and one of them was a good bit lower than the other His face below the nose was so long that you would just naturally look at in wonder; and if you drew a line through the point where the mid dle of his mouth ought to be, you would find that the mouth was about twenty-five per cent. too far on the left side of the diagram.
 Before the panic of 1907 Bostwiek was known in business as the friend of the little fellows" Merchants and manufacturers whose myriad travel ing men radiated from New York like the light of the vernal sun had learn ed to depend upon Bostwick as they depended upon the regularly recur- rent sequence of the spring and the fall trade. Did Rostwick agree to give you cash at discount on the notes you brought in from your GUS toners up to say a hundred thousand or moro ba vrro,tlJ iio ono o;, o