Evening star., 1927-11-20

days, who assured him that he was
the Wall street type and urged him
| to come East and join forces with
them. They promised to mentor him
both in Wall street and in Park ave
nue., and they told him that he couldn't
possibly go wrong. But, although he
craved money and society as some
men crave drugs, there was this much
to his credit: His father was old and
lonely, and Jimmy wasn't going tc
maroon him. 1t was going to be l.. I,
| Trowbridge & Son-that is. as long as
Jimmy could bear It.
And then, Just as the menacing
| future reached out its claws, his father
died and left him something, and, a
| fortnight afterward, his great-uncle
died and left him everything. That
was six years ago. Six years? Some
times it felt like sixty years. and then
again it felt like so minutes. 1t was
all SO blurred and unsubstantial.
" X X *
lie had hurried to New York. OF
IL course. but with no idea of taking
employment in Wall Street. He was
now a gentleman of means, and he
| had come to increase the list of gen
uine social eligibles from Four Hun
dred to -Four Hundred and One. AS a
starter, one of his friends put him up
at a club. and, long before his guest
card ran cut. he had been adopted by
a very gay and aff1uent crowd. 1t
wasn't perhaps the most blue-blooeed
group he could have chosen, but 1t
certainly mad the most money and the
! best time.
The crowd had liked him, instinct
lively, just as his acquaintances had
prophesied. And SO had begun those
brave days when he made new friends
at every turn, and met glorious women
and arlstOcratic young brokers who
gave him tips on the market.
AT last, Beau Trowbridge was among
| his own kind: and he went where they
went and did what they did-in New
! YORK. Long Island. Palm Beach. Paris,
| Deauville. Biarritz.
/ 1t had come as a tremendous shock
| to him-this was year ago last
March. when he was figuring out his
income taX-to realize that his money
affairs were sliding downhill with dan.
gerous momentum. To be sure, when
| you were in the right crowd, there
was always poker or roulette or
racing, and besides. everybody took a
| flutter in the market, once in a while:
| still, he couldn't imagine what had
eaten so heavily into his capital. His
fortune had seemed to him so enor.
NOUS that he had planned TO live like
prince forever, and here it appeared
that he had already managed to make
away with half of his inheritance.
Well. there was no sense in brooding
over it. The thing to do was to take
action. Consequently, he had done
this, and the market had given him
| considerably more action than he
wanted. No matter what position he
took, he lost. Whether he acted on
expert advice or on his own lunches.
whether he was long or short. whether
he followed the rails or the industrials
or cotton or wheat, the result was in.
variably the same-picayune profits or
huge losses. And this went on until,
one day in Autumn, he finished a
round of golf at Sleepy Hollow.
He had played very well and was
pleased with himself. The other men,
bers of the foursome fell into COM
foatable chairs, and one man sent for
something from his locker, and an.
other man began to balance the bets.
while Trowbridge went to telephone to
his brokers. When he returned, he
was a pasty white.
Well jimmy" the bookkeeper had
said. you're the big winner. You win
hundred and twenty"
Trowbridge had smiled. Noblesse
oblige. In two hours and half he
had won a hundred and twenty dollars
playing golf, but in the same length
Of time, he had dropped a hundred and
forty thousand dollars in the Street.
X X v
He succeeded in saving. out Of the
wreck, some eighty thousand dol
lars. But where could a gentleman
live on the income of eighty thousand