Evening star., 1924-11-29
BY ROBERT II. SMALL.

BOSTON, Mass, November 90
Thomas w. Lawson of Boston, whose
Frenzied Finance in fiction, and
later in fact. set the whole world by
the ears. was led by destiny into a
career of which he never dreamed.
He got a job in a brokers' office on
Black Friday" 1t was the day in
1869 that Jay Gould and his fellow
conspirators finally were thwarted in
their attempt to corner the gold of
'he world. Later in life Lawson at
tempted to make every day Il black
one in Wall street, little realizing
that in the end he was to suffer the
hlackest days of all. III. in the Bar
Harbor Hospital, friendless and all
but penniless, Lawson is paying the
price of having bucked the system"
nnd lost.
started PIunging at 10.
4 lad of u, strolIing through the
streets OF Boston in search of a job
Tommy Lawson saw II sign in a
brokers' window. 1t read, Boy
Wanted That was fate. BY the time
he was Ii young Lawson had or
ganized all the other kids in the
office into a pool" buying some rail-
road stock on margin at SO Il share
and selling il for S22. The legend has
IT that in his first five years of filling
The job of Boy Wanted" Lawson had
accumulated $4,000. Then one day
he lost all but $3.50. With this sum
he invited his pool associates to
dinner at Ioung's Hotel. When the
check was paid, 50 remained. Law
son tossed it to the head waiter.
In 20 years Lawson is supposed to
have made and lost S40,00O,O00. He
claims once to have made $1,000, 900
between two settings of the sun. He
never believed in banks; never had
balance of more than $4,000. He has
carried as high as s2.000.000 in his
pocket in certified checks. Other
checks and securities he placed in
safe deposit vaults He carried
emeralds and diamonds worth from
100000 to $2o0,0uo loose in his pockets.
Trimmed in Merger.
In the market Lawson was a. hunch
player He had accumulated a fair
fortune when he went to Fl. II. Rogers
and William Rockefeller OF the Stand
ard Oil crowd and proposed to
them i merger OF copper companies.
afterward known rs Amalgamated
copper. Rogers and Rockefeller
listened. The merger was consum-
mated, but when the 100000, 900 mel.
on for hte organizers was cut, Law
son got SOME pocket money and that
was all. He vowed vengeance. Where
fore emerged his famous "Frenzied
Finance-Tha Story OF Amalga-
mated" President Roosevelt had
been hammering the corporations
about this time. The public was ripe
for an expose. Lawson gave them a
lurid tale in large doses. He hit
Standard Oil and the copper kings
blows from which it took them years
and years to recover. Lawson was
out to slay "the system" He told
the people how the market was rig
ged.''
If Lawson could only have stopped
his gambling when he had finished
the story of Amalgamated. he would
have been one of the worlds greatest
heroes. But he could not keep away.
Finally the market was 'rigged' on
him and he lost heavily. He recovered
millions by promoting various copper
companies. His advertisements were
exceedingly clever. lie printed many
mysterious ones about a certain cop
per stock. He carefully refrained
from urging any one to buy this
stock, but all OF his WOrShipers went
20 it, hook. line and sinker.
Then one morning Lawson came