Omaha daily bee., 1919-06-22

peCted that 1t was first whispered
over the telephone-together with
an urgent selling order-by some
employe in the cable service. In five
minutes the dull noise of the curb
stone market in Broad street had
leaped to high note of frantic in
teri ogation. From within the hive
of the exchange itself could be
heard droning hubbub of fear and
men rushed hatless in and out. Was
it true? asked every man; and every
man replied, with rambling lips.
that it was a lie put out by some un-
scrupulous short" interest seeking
to cover itself. In another quarter
of an hour news came of a sudden
and ruinous collapse of yankees"
in London at the close of the Stock
Exchange day. 1t was enough. New
York had still four hours trading in
front of it. The strategy of point
ing to Henderson as the savior and
warden of the market had recoiled
upon its authors with annihilating
force, and Jeffrey, his ear at his pri-
vate telephone, listened to the tale
of disaster with set jaw. The new
Napoleon had lost his Marengo. He
saw the whole financial landscape
sliding and falling into chaos before
him. In half an hour news of the find
ing of Manderson's body, with
the inevitable rumor that it was sui
eide, was printing in a dozen news
paper offices; but before a copy
reached Wall street the tornado Of
the panic was in full fury. and How
ard B. Jeffrey and his collaborators
were whirled away like leaves be-
fore its breath.
+
All this sprang out of nothing.
Nothing in the texture of the gen.
eral life had changed. The corn had
not ceased to ripen in the sun. The
rivers bore their barges and gave
power to myriad engines. The
tlocks fattened on the pastures, the
herds were unnumbered. Men labor
ed everywhere in the various servi-
tudes, to which they were born, and
chafed not more than usual in their
bonds, Bellona tossed and MUIR
INJURED as ever, yet still slept her un-
easy sleep. To all mankind save
million or two of half-crazed gam
blers, blind to all reality, the death
of Henderson meant nothing; the
life and work of the world went on
Weeks before he died strong hands
had been in control of every wire in
the hugh network of commerce and
industry that he had supervised. Be-
tore his corpse was buried his coun-
trymen had made a strange discov-
cry: that the existence of the potent
engine of monopoly that went by the
name of Sigsbee Henderson had not
| been a condition of even material
prosperity. The panic blew itself out
in two days. the pieces were picked
up, the bankrupts withdrew out of
sight; the market recovered nor
NAL tone" -
While the brief delirium was yet
subsiding there broke out domestic
scandal in England that suddenly
fixed the attention of two continents.
Next morning the, Chicago Limited
was wrecked, and the same day a
notable politician was shot down in
cold blood by his wife's brother in
tie streets of New Orleans. Within
a week of its arising ''the Mander-
son story" to the trained sense of
editors throughout the union, was
cold The tide of American visi-
tors pouring through Europe made
eddies around the memorial or statue
of many a, man who had died in
poverty; and never thought of their
most famous plutocrat. ~ Like the
poet who died in Rome, so young
and poor, 100 years ago, he was bur-
led far away from his own land; but
for all the men and women of Man
derson's people who flock round the
tomb of Keats in the cemetery under
the Monte Testaccio, there is not
one, nor ever will be, to stand in
reverence by the rich mans grave
beside the little church in Marlstone.