The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1911-06-16

phone clerk--twenty dollars a week '
Il wasn't much of a place for Andy
but false pride was but n symbol with
him. He was out to get a fresh grip
and It mattered not where he caught
hold. The duties of telephone clerk
are not complicated, but VITAL the
handspring Of nearly every transac.
ton on the floor of the stock exchange
Orders are telephoned to the board
over private wires from the various
Offices. The order is written on a pad
by the man at the exchange end of the
connection. and forwarded to be exc
cuted.
He and Joan had to buckle down to
hard-pan But she had married him
because she loved him, not to splurge,
not TO pose like a big, graceful, use.
less doll as the wife of rich young
Andy Gage.
And ,ee gods Of chance still firted
with t.l. One day Wizard Duncan
opened an account with Newcomb &
Hatch. Audys very employers, where
at Andy waited, watchful and cautious.
lie laid in wait under cover.
The young telephone clerk contract
ed the laudable habit of keeping late
Office hours-to secretly pore over the
customers accounts. He learnt by
heart and kept himself posted on every
detail of the wizards trading.
Then things failed to break right for
Duncan. He began to slide. The king
of the pool crowd who had sliced
many a ripe melon with him had died
under the surgeons knife. Specu'a,
ing on margins is q precagious calling
It's an adage of the sound financial
world that sooner or later he who
CANDLES on the tape is lost. But Dun.
can hung on, going deeper and deeper,
totally unable to break the shackle5 of
the mania that had seized him, his
very blood mad to win back his dwin-
ding fortune. But the climax was
reached on the Tonopah preferred
deal.
He was heavily long on Tonopah pre-
fegred, a one-track system whose next
to worthless stock was him-fammed
up and ilim-hammed down, the price a
mere decoy and a fake. Now the wiz
ard was still solid in certain circles
where they pull the string. Tonopah
preferred was a good purchase at 40,
a gold brick twenty points higher
Forty was low water, GO high tide. 1t
was all very simple to his understand
ing, the A B c Of the game Of stocks
Two weeks after he bought he re-
ceived a telegram marked rush"
Sell quick Fight on with Tonopah
directors Going to wreck, merge,
freeze-out."
And Duncan was up to his neck in
Tonopah preferred. 1t had seemed
such q safe play, such a supreme
chance. But it hadn't been a chance.
1t had been a sure thing. And he had
succeeded in fooling even himself. He
would make a. big haul and bid good
by to the ticker, bid farewell to the
nerye-racking, furious strife-forever.
But even now he wasn't afraid, disap-
pointed. His brain, working smoothly,
naturally saw the easy way to hedge,
to still play trumps He gave his
brokers' instructions to sell twenty
thousand shares Of Tonapah preferred,
whereas before he had been long but
ten thousand. 1t wasn't smart. 1t was
the logical remedy. The telegram had
warned him and gone over his head
harmlessly.
That order came buzzing over the
wire into Andy Cages ear. Outside of
the booth Of ringing phones, out on
the floor Of the exchange rose the muir
muring shout of Wall streets pulse,
dust-laden, jumbled, incessant. But
Gage shut out all else save that dron-
Continued on Eighth Pagel