The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-09-30


 as velvet.
 ''If I may give you suggestion, MT. Bfvens, I would venture to say that the Van Dam Trust company is be yoad aid. The larger interests of the nation require the elimination of this institution and it's associates.
 "I have heard good reports of you, and I wish to save you from the dis aster about to befalI the gentlemen who have been conducting the present campaign in Wall street. If your sec retary will report to me at once with the four millions you have set aside for the Van Dam company l shall be pleased to place your name on my ex- ecutive council in the big movement we begin today. The other gentlemen whom I have thus honored are now waiting for me in the adjoining room. They represent banking power that is resistless at the present moment.
 |'When the Van Dam Trust closes its l doors today a temporary panic will follow. WN will give the gentlemen l who started this excitement a taste of their own medicine, render service to the nation and incidentally, of course, earn an honest dollar or two for ourselves trust I have your hearty support in this programF'
 Bivens again bowed low. 'eMy hearty support and my pro foundest gyatitude.''
 f'I'H expect your secretary with your ] check for four millions within thirty minutes
 The king waved a friendly gesture of dismissal. and the little dark figure i tremblingly withdrew He had been ordered to stab his associates. i F1a gave the cruel orders that~sent them hurlihg over the precipice. When the president of the Van Dam 1 Trust company failed to receive the promised millions from Bivens he call ed his telephone and, receiving no an swer, sprang into his automobile and dashed downtown to the little main office.
 When the clerk at the door informed 1 him that MT. Bivens could not be seen i by any one, he drove back to the pala- tai house of his bank, smiled sadly a. the mob in front of it's huge pillars, ordered its bronze doors closed, walked around the corner to his home, locked l himself in his room and blew his brains | out
 For a week the panic held the finan- cia1 world in the grip of death. A doz- en banks had closed their doors and a score of men who had long boasted their courage among men had died the | death of covar rds when put to the test i One of the most curious results of i the panic was the revulsion of pop ular feeling against the daring and honest young officer of the law who i had rendered the greatest service to the | people wrought by any public servant l in a generation He was hailed as the arch traitor Of the people, the man who had used his high office to produce a panic and carve a fortune out of the ruin of millions whose deposits were tied up in banks that might never again | open their doors. 1 Stuart, stung to desperation by their 1 infamous charges. attempted at first to repeI them. He stopped at last in disgust and maintained afterward a ! d1gnified silence.
 l From the first day of the run Bivens 1 had laughed in the face of the crowd that besieged the door of his big Broad i way bank. He stood on top of the i granite steps and shouted in their ! faces:
 Come on, you dirty cowardsi I've 1 got your money inside waiting for you, every dollar of it-1OO cents on the dol larr'
 The crowd made no reply. They
 merely moved up in line in stolid si- lence little closer to the door. Each day this line had grown longer. Biy- ems was not worrying. The king had
 spoken. The folly of these people in
 their insane efforts to wreck Biven's
 bank was making impossible return
 to normal business.
 l %o
 and have it out with them. He be
 lieved that bold appeal to their rea-
 son would silence his critics and allay 1 their insane fears. He told Bivens of
 his purpose over the telephone, and the
 fnancier protested vigorously:
 Don't do it, Jim, I beg of you,'' he
 pleaded. Tt will be a waste of breath.
 Besides, you risk your life.''
 "I'll be there when the bank opens at 1 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. was the 1 firm answer.
 1 When Stuart appeared the next morn i ing roar of rage swept the crowd | How1S, curses, catcalls, hisseS, hoots
 and yells were hurled into his face. It
 was new experience in Stuart's life
 He flushed red, stood for a moment l surveying the mob with growing anger
 and lifted his hand for silence The answer was a storm of hiSseS l Apparently he hadn't friend in all the
 swaying mass of bowling maniacs. Hs
 drew his heavy brows down over n1s
 eyes and the square jaws ground to
 gether with sullen determination.
 With sudden impulse he threw iii. | right hand high above his head and his
 voice boomed over the crowd in pea
 of command. The effect was electrical | A painful hush followed.
 | 'GentIemeni'
 He paused and his next words were | spoken in intense silence.
 My answer to the extraordinary
 greeting you have given me this
 morning is simple. I am not working