Omaha daily bee., 1919-06-22
THE WOMAN IN BLACK
PROLOGUE


seems to matter, how should the
world we know Judge wisely?
When the scheming, indomitable
brain of Sigebee Henderson was
scattered by a shot from an un-
known hand, that world lost moth
ing worth a single tear; it gained
something memorable in a harsh
reminder of the vanity of such
wealth as this dead man has piled
up-without making one loyal
friend to mourn him, without doing
an act that could help his memory
to the least honor. But when the
news of his end came, it seemed
to those living in the great worthless
Of business as if the earth, too,
shuddered under a blow.
In all the lurid commercial his
tory of his country there had been
no figure that had so imposed itself
upon the mind Of the trading world.
He had a niche apart in its temples.
Financial giants, strong to direct
and augment the forces oflcapital,
and taking an approved toll in mil
lions for so doing, had existed be-
fore; but in the case of Henderson
there had been this singularity, that
a pale halo of piratical romance,
thing especially dear to the hearts
of his countrymen, had remained in
corgruously about his head through
the years when he stood in every
eye as the unquestioned guardian of
stability the stamper-out of manip-
ulated crises, the foe of the raiding
ch;eftains that infest the borders Of
Wall street.
The fortune left by his grand
father, who has been. one of those
chieftains, on the smaller scale of
his day, had descended to him with
accretion through his father, who
during long life had quietly con-
tinued to lend money and never had
margined a stock. Henderson, who
had at no time known what it was
to be without large sums to his
hand. should have been altogether
of that newer American plutocracy
which is steadied by the tradition
and habit of great wealth. But it
was not so. While his nurture and
education had taught him European
ideas of rich mans proper external
circumstance; while they had rooted
in him an instinct for quiet magnifi-
cence, the larger costliness which
does not shrek of itself with a
thousand tongues; there had been
handed on to him. nevertheless. much
of the Forty-niner and financial
Duccaneer, his forbear. During that
first period of his business career
which had been called his early bad
manner he had been little more than
gambler of genius, his hand against
every mans, an infant prodigy who
brought to the enthralling pursuit
of speculation brain better en-
dowed than any opposed to it. At
St. Helena it was laid down that
was is une belle occupation, and so
the young Henderson had found the
| multitudinous and complicated dog
fight of the Stock Exchange of New
York.
Then came his change. At his
fathers death. when Henderson
was 80 years old, some new reveal.
ton of the power and the glory Of
the god he served seemed to have
come upon him. With the sudden.
elastic adaptability of his nation he
turned to steady labor in his fathers
banking business closing his ears to
the sound of the battles of the
street In a few years he came to
control all the activity of the great
firm whose unimpeached conserva-
tism, safety and financial weight
lifted it like cliff above the angry
sea of the markets. All mistrust
founded on the performances of his
youth had vanished. He was quiet
plainly a different man. How the
change came about none could with
authority say, but there was story
of certain last words spoken by his
father, whom alone he had respected
and perhaps loved.
He began to tower above the fl
nancial situation. Soon his name
was current in the bourses of the
world. One who spoke the name
of Henderson called up vision of
all that was broad-based and firm in
the vast wealth of the United States.
He planned great combinations OF
capital, drew together and central
lied industries OF continental scope.
financed with urerring judgment the
large designs of state or OF private
enterprise. Many a time when he
took hold" to smash strike, or to
federate the ownership of some
great field of labor. he sent ruin
upon multitude of tiny homes; and
il miners or steel workers or cattle
men defied him and invoked disor-
der. he could be more lawless and
ruthless than they. But this was
done in the pursuit of legitimate
business ends. Tens of thousands
of the poor might curse his name
but the financier and the Spectator
execrated him no more. He stretch
ed hand to protect or to manipu-
late the power of wealth in every
corner of the country. Forcible. cod
and unerring. in all he did he Min
istered to the national lust for mag
nitude; and a grateful country sur
named him the Colossus.
But there was an aspect of Man.
derson in this latter period that lay
long unknown and unsupported save
by a few. his secretaries and lieu.
tenants and certain of the associates
lof his bygone hurting TINA. 'Thi: