Fame And Fortune Weekly (no. 1082) (1926 06 25)
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STORIES OF BOYS MONEY. N “Help! Help!” screamed Kittie, rushing forward and striking at Norris with her parasol “Grab the little vixen and silence her, Beaver.” gritted the broker, who. encumbered with the unconscious boy, was unable to defond himself against the girl's spirited attack
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1960-1961 SEND YOUR WANT LIST. RALPH. P. SMITH BOX 985 LAWRENCE, MASS. BOOKS; MAGAZINES, NOVELS Bought. Seld and Exchanged. Write far lists Gut of Print Five Cent Novels, Our Specially WAROLD G. LORANG, Darien Center, N.Y.
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FAME AND FORTUNE WEEKLY er year! Canada, 50; Foreign, $5.00. Harry H.. Wolff, biisher, ine., 168 PEN... Entered < Second-Ciass Matter, October 4, on at Issued weekly—Subscription price} $4.00 West 23d Street, New York the Post-Office at New York, N. No. 1082 Fighting the NEW YORK, JUNE 25, AUE 9 under the Act of March 3, 1879. 1926 vy Price 8 Cents. Money Kings OR, THE LITTLE SPECULATOR OF WALL STREET By A SELF-MADE MAN zs CHAPTER I.—The Little Speculator. z “Who is that well-dressed young chap?” asked - Broker Norris of his friend Beaver, nodding to- ward a sprucely-attired boy of eighteen who had just walked up to a trader standing on the steps of the Stock Exchange and entered into conver- ‘sation with him. : “Haven't you heard of him? That’s Bob Yorke, the little speculator. He’s the latest sensation in Wall Street.” : “What! ‘The boy I hear the brokers talking about?” 3 “Yes, the same. They say he’s just cleared a small fortune in B. & O.” : = “He seems to have sprung up while I was:down* am Florida, for I - yesterday.” f _- “He appears to be a pretty shrewd young: fel; low. thoroughly acquainted with all the Ths ‘and outs of stock speculation.” ny nae “Where did he come from?” ay “T believe he was a messenger for a Boston ’ broker till he started out for himself in that town, made a good-sized wad, and finding Boston too contracted as a field of action came to New York to spread himself.” : 1a “Expects to show us how to do business here, eh?” grinned Norris. é “T don’t know anything about. that. I haven’t - moticed that he puts on any airs. Seems rather _. @ quiet, self-contained boy, who goes about his __ @wn business and lets other people attend to _ theirs. Henderson, who is acquainted with him pays he is a very gentlemanly young fellow, an feni fa apparently well educated.” “You say he made money in B. & 0.2?” “That’s the report; but you can’t tell how true _.. it is. A man’s winnings, as well as his losses, are usually exaggerated in Wall Street.” ; “He must have made a deal out of the usual fp set himself into the limelight, and he couldn’t that without financial backing.” _ “T guess he’s got the stuff all right.” 4 boy speculator with money ought to be a ‘mark for Wall Street.” _ “He doesn’t look like an easy one.” “He may be, just the same, if he’s handled * wight,” laughed Norris. “Where is his office?” Minerva Building, sixth floor.” _ Broker Norris made a mental note of the fact ee: Ln never heard about, him till - as the two men entered the Exchange. In the meantime the subject of this brief conversation held a short confab with a well-known trader in front of the Exchange, and then went up into the visitor’s gallery, which was sprinkled with men and women sightseers taking in the antics of the bulls and bears on the floor below. No one would have taken him for a speculator who had recently made a big roll out of an unexpected rise in B. & O. He looked rather like the son of well-to-do parents who had dropped into the Exchange to pass a few idle moments. He had a handsome face, his features being regular and clean-cut. His eyes bright and expressive, and his -air-was alert.and business-like. He would havée‘attracted attention: most anywhere as a lad -hound to make his way ahead in the world if accorded half a show. As a matter of fact, Bob Yorke was above the average in all the elements that spell success in this world. He was born and raised in:Boston. His father’s sudden death com- pelled him to get out and hustle to support his mother and two young sisters. A friend secured him the job of messenger in a State Street trader’s office, and he worked himself up to the firm’s representative on the Exchange, a position that called for tact, shrewdness and nerve. As he had all three he easily made good. He found many opportunities to speculate success- fully on the side, and thus acquired quite a large Be ts for one of his age who began on nothing. The retirement from business of the firm for which he worked gave him the chance he had long dreamed of—to leave Boston for New York. There is only one Wall Street, and that was the Mecca of his ambition. So he packed his grip and came on. After looking the field over for a week he hired a small but handsomely appointed flat in Harlem and sent for his mother and sis- ters, whom he installed in their new home, which they liked. very much indeed. Then he rented an office in the Minerva Building in Wall Street, had his name painted on the door, with the words “Stocks and Bonds,” to indicate the line of busi- “ness he was following, and almost immediately invested his money on margin in B. & O. shares, which were low.. Inside of ten days B. & O. was up fifteen points. With a profit of nearly $100,000 in sight he threw his holdings on the market at @ moment that was criti for the syndicate booming the stock. The result was he broke the
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2 FIGHTING THE market. Both the bulls who had lost, and the bears who had won, were anxious to find out who had caused the slump. When the matter was traced to the young stranger from Boston he became for several days the most-talked-of person in Wall Street, and one daily newspaper printed a column about him, after its reporter had interviwed him at his office. Bob remained an hour in the Exchange gallery and then took a stroll around among the Curb brokers to see what was doing in that direction. After that he went to lunch and returned to his office. A little red-headed office boy was hold- ing a chair down outside the railing that divided off Bob’s desk from the rest of the room. “Anybody been in to see me, Dan?” asked Bob. “No, sor; niver a sowl,” replied the boy with a strong Irish accent. . Dan O’Hara was the son of the woman who did the washing and sweeping for Bob’s mother, and the young speculator had hired him to look after his office and carry an occasional message for him. Mrs. O’Hara was mighty proud of her son employed in Wall Street, and told all her neigh- bers that Dan was working for a rich broker: In consequence Dan ‘was greatly envied by the other boys of the neighborhood, who believed he must be getting a princely salary. Dan was naturally a close-mouthed boy, and he wouldn’t let anybody know what his wages were. ‘Bob had bought him a neat and substantial suit of store cloth, to which Dan added a gold-washed watch-chain with a big key to hold one end in his vest pocket. When Bob saw the chain he bought Dan a dollar watch which kept accurate time, and after that the Irish lad held his head pretty high ‘among his associates. The style that Dan blos- somed out in involved him in several scraps with boys jealous of -his good luck; but as young O'Hara was tough and handy with his fists, he eame out first best from all of his encounters, and consequently established himself as cock of the walk in his own neighborhood. Bob sat down at his desk and began to read one of the Wall Street dailies that had been delivered at the office while he was out. The young broker had ‘seen it reported in the papers that he had cleaned up $100,000 on his B. & O. deal. For once the press had got the facts down correct, still very few traders believed it just the same. They had had long experience with the careless way in which the average reporter, in his hustle after news, handles the truth. There were some brokers who were not so- skeptical concerning Bob’s reported wirmings, and several of these gentlemen were beginning to lay pipes in the young speculator’s direction with the view of testing his sharpness and, if possible, annexing a part of his capital. Among those who had an eye on Bob’s stock of fleece was William Norris. He had just re- turned” from a month’s sojourn with his family in an expensive Florida hotel, and he was looking around to recover the money he had spent on his trip. Bob looked as if he might be a good thing, and good things never got away from Broker Norris if that gentleman could help it. The young speculator’s entire capital amounted to $145,0000 at the time we introduce him to the yeader’s attention, and as he could not open a business account at any of the banks, because he MONEY KINGS Was under age, he kept it in a box in a near-by safe deposit vault, where he had access to it at all times between the hours of nine and four except on Sundays and legal holidays. ¢ : Bob was deeply interested in the Wall Street news when the door opened and Mr. Norris walked in. Dan jumped up and politely asked him his business. : “T called to see Mr. Yorke,” said the broker. “What name shall I be after tillin’ him, sor?” — asked Dan. ; “Norris,” said the visitor. Dan went to the railing and said: = “A gintleman by the name of Norris to see yez, sor. “Show him in here,” replied Bob. Mr. Norris entered the private enclosure and was asked to sit down. j Ret “T heard a good deal about you, young man,” said the broker, “so I thought I’d come up and make your acquaintance.” “Well, I’m glad to know you, Mr. Norris,” re- plied Bob politely. aa “You haven’t been in New York long, I bee lieve?” ae. “No, sir, about three weeks.” be “You’ve managed to get yourself pretty well talked about in that short time.” ae “T didn’t seek the notoriety, sir.” oe “Not directly, perhaps, but when a chap of your age goes into the market and breaks it the fact will naturally attract attention. You come — from Boston, I’ve heard.” is UVessin* : “You think that Wall Street offers more at- tractions than State Street, eh?” “Wall Street is the financial center of the United States, and consequently the place where the largest business is done in stock operations.” “And yet Bostonians regard their town as the — hub of the universe,” grinned the broker. “T believe they do, but I prefer New York as a field of action.” : “You expect to remain here, then?” “Such is my intention at present.’ se “Are you doing anything in the market just — now?”, ? “No, sir.” es “T could put you on to a good thing if you’d like © even anywhere from, say, $50,000 to $100,- — “T believe a good thing is what everybody is looking for.” a4 “If you promise to keep the matter quiet Vl | let you in on a tip I just got hold of,” if “A tip?” ; j “Yes, and it’s a winneft. But H. & O, at any figure under 69 and you won’t regret it. Tm — loaded up with it, but I know where yo can get a bunch of it if you are spry. George Beaver, a broker,’ on the fourth floor of the Hercules Building on Broad Street, has a considerable
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FIGHTING THE = “Do so, and I guarantee you’ll maké another - -wad,” said the broker, rising, “I am pleased to have met you, Yorke, and will drop in again some ‘time: Here is my card. I will be glad to _ have you call any time you’re around my, way. - Good-day.” » ; Thus speaking, Mr. Norris took his leave. CHAPTER IL—wWall Street Snares. “Mr. Norris was uncommonly friendly to give me that tip,” thought Bob. “I didn’t know that - New York brokers were so liberally disposed as - my caller seems to be. I wonder if that is a real pointer, or whether Mr. Norris has an axe to grind. I saw him talking to Mr. Beaver in front of the Exchange to-day.* As all sorts of dodges - are ‘worked in Wall Street to get a fellow’s money from him [ can’t be too careful how I take up with any proposition that’s offered me. It isn’t impossible that Mr. Norris is trying to ‘work off some H. & O. on me through his friend Beaver. - I’ve heard of just such tricks being worked before. He suggested in a pointed way that I lose no time calling on Beaver with respect to his block of the stock. Well, I’m not going to rush matters till I find out something about H. & O., and what . the prospects are for a good rise in it. A certain amount of caution is a good asset in Wall Street, _ for a fellow can get stranded here quicker than anywhere else that I know of.” Bob put on his hat and went out. He called on the firm of brokkers who had put through his B. & O. deal and asked the senior partner if he had heard anything about H. & O. lately. “Tf you are thinking of buying it I would advise you not to,” repliéd the gentleman. : “T heard there was going to be a boom in it,” - said Bob. “On what authority?” ~ “Qn that of a well-known broker.” “Did he tell you to buy the stock?” “He suggested it.” . : “Then he’s probably got a block of it that he ‘wants to get rid of.” =. “TY had some such suspicion, for he referred - me to a broker who I believe is a friend of his.” “An old trick. Thought you’d bite. The semi- annual report of the H. & O. road has just been Tested and shows a considerable deficit. It will . go to 60 in a few days or I am much mistaken.” - Bob thanked the broker for his information and left the office. The young speculator didn’t go near Beaver, and by the end of the week - : i. & O. was down to 61. “That was a nice little trap,” Bob said to him- self; “but it didn’t catch this innocent. I hope I may always be as fortunate in avoiding the snares that bristle all about Wall Street. The 2 get back at Mr. Norris for the kind interest : showed for my welfare. Maybe I will some ime. : : - That day he had a call from another broker who wanted to sell him one of his brand of $old bricks. Bob was wary and wouldn’t enthuse, a left in disgust. During the next wo weeks Bob discovered that gold bricks were ee, : - : ‘ eI . MONEY KINGS 3 plentiful in Wall Street, and that some people ; made a business of trying to circulate them, He had at least half'a dozen brought to his notice, every one warranted as possessing the hall-mark of sterling gold. i “Tord, some men don’t mind lying no more tha they do drawing their breaths. ll bet most of them are church members in good standing, tco. Everything goes in Wall Street, as well as clocks and watches. Charity, they say, covers a mul- titude of sins. Well, I think the shadow of. Trinity Church steeple covers its share, too, when the sun is setting. I suppose I’ll be an old trans-. gressor myself one of these days if I breathe the atmosphere of the financial district long enough.” Such was the tenor of Bob’s thoughts as he reckoned up the number of attempts lately made . by respectable-looking men to separate him from his capital. “Dan,” said the young speculator to his office boy_one morning, “how do you like Wall Street?” “Foine, sor.” ; “You say that, I suppose, because you have a sinecure.” “T have a what, sor?” asked the boy, locking puzzled. “A sinecure.” Dan scratched his chin at his employer. “What’s thot, sor?” “You have a fat job—little work and fair pay.” “Sure, is thot a sinecure? Thin, begorra, Pve got it,” he replied with a grin. “I was afraid it was a new kind of measels or somethin’ of thot sort. If you had more work, sor, it’s me thot’s willin’ to do it.” i” “T believe you, Dan. If you stay with me you'll have more work by and by.” fo “Tl stay as long as yez’ll let me. ‘Me ould mother is mighty proud to have me workin’ in Wall Street. She says I’m quite the gintleman entoirely, do yez moind thot.” “You’re going to night school, aren’t you?” “Faith, I am. I'll be a scholar one of these - days, please the pigs.” “Where were you born, Dan?” “In Ennis, County Clare.” a “Are you glad your mother brought you to America?” “Faith, ] am. Me mother says there’s no place loike Ireland, but thot’s because she don’t know any better, bless her innocent sowl! There’s no place like Ameriky to make money. Sure, where would I get four dollars a wake and driss loike a gintleman in Ireland at me age?” ; ~ “When Christmas comes I’ll raise your wages. tOrsix. “Thank you, sor. Me mother will surely have and looked helplessly” a mass said for your sowl whin she hears thot. 3 She thinks you’re a foine gintleman, anyway.” At that point the door opened "ane Hadieen Beaver entered the office. “Good-morning, Yorke. said. “Fine as outdoors,” lator. “That’s pretty fine, for it’s a glorious autumn day. Have you any J. & D. stock?” ; “Not a share.” ; ’ “I’ve been trying to fill an order for two days. It seems pretty scarce. . If you run across any How are things?” he replied the young specu- Se eee ee SF = a =F ‘asta tai
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4 FIGHTING THE jet me know. I'll pay two points over the market.” _ “J -haven’t noticed that there wag anything particular doing in J. & D. -I don’t see why it should be scarce.” “Some combination may have cornered it on the quiet. In which case——” “Tt will boom.” 3 “That’s about the size of it.” Beaver, who appeared to be in a hurry, hustled away. ‘If J. & D. is really scarce somebody has been buying up most all that’s in sight, and they don’t do such things for fun down here. I must make a few inquiries.” He reached for hat when the door opened again anda man who was a stranger to him came in, “Is Mr. Yorke in?” he asked Dan. “Faith, he is. Do yez want to see him?” sCVEs."% “Will yez mintion your name?” “John Hinkley.” Dan stepped to the railing and told Bob that Mr. Hinkley wanted to see him. The caller ‘was asked inside the railing. “What can I do for you, Mr. Hinkley?” “Pm a broker. I was told that you had some J. & D. shares. I want——” “Are you looking for J. & D.?” “Yes, I want-a thousand bad.” ‘ “Well, I haven’t a share, and never had any. I don’t know why anyone should say I had some. Who was the gentleman who told you?” - “Mr. Bell, a broker.” i “Don’t know anybody by that name.” “Maybe he gave me your name by mistake. If you hear of any let me know. Room 704, Mills Building.” “All right, I will,” said Bob, making a note of the name and address of his caller, who hurried off. ; “T guess J. & D. must be pretty scarce when I have two brokers call on me for the stock, within a few minutes of each other,” thought Bob. Before he could reach the corridor door it was opened and a plainly dressed old lady in black, with a black hand-bag, walked in. “Ts this a brokerage office?” she inquired in a hesitating tone. “Yes, ma’am,” returned Bob. “Ts the broker in?” “Yes, ma’am. I’m Mr. Yorke, broker.” “You buy stock, I suppose?” “J buy and sell it on commission.” ; -“T have some certificates of J. & D. that I wish to dispose of.” “What stock, ma’am?” “TP DY.” Bob was evidently surprised. CHAPTER IJI—The Scheme That Failed. “Got the certificates with you?” Bob asked. “They’re in my bag,” she said, opening it and taking out five certificates calling for 400 shares each. “As the market: value of J. & D. was 45, the cer- tificates represented,.$90.000. . _ “You wish me to sell these for you, madam?” =? ¢ : ‘ Pe es: eres wa. 4 " asked. MONEY KINGS “Yes.” ; “Very well. Step inside the railing, please.” Bob examined the certificates carefully. They — appeared to be all right. One singular circum- — stance about them was that the interest appeared to be due for sixteen years. Sa “How long have you had these, madam?” he asked. i “Only a few days.” “Only a few days!” he said in surprise. eine “Yes. I found them in an old trunk in my © garret that belonged to my husband.” 2 ¥ “May'l ask if your husband is dead?” ee “ay es.” *" “How long has he been dead?” “About sixteen years.” we “Well, madam, the market value of these — shares at present is 45. That makes the 2,000 — shares worth $90,000. Weren’t you aware that — your husband owned this stock?” es “Yes, I knew he owned some J. & D., but I did ok not know how much. After his death I looked for — it, but could not find it, so I supposed that he had sold it.” ee “Well, I should say that there is considerable unpaid interest due on this stock. Just how much ~ I couldn’t say without seeing the secretary of the — company. I’ll give you a receipt for these certifi- — cates. I shall probably have no difficulty in sell- ing them for you.” aes 5 “Couldn’t you advance me $10,000 on them?” she asked. “I have a payment to make to-day of that sum. If you would buy the stock yourself I’d sell it for 42. You could send me the inte est after you collected it.” i ed “T haven’t that amount of money at hand, mad- am. If you will call, say, at two o’clock, I might be able to accommodate you.” ea eS: Bob wrote out an order,of sale and asked her to sign her name and address to it, which she dic “That will be all now. I will look for you to call some time this afternoon,” said the young speculator. : ae The old lady went away with a receipt for the five certificates in her pocket. Bob started for the brokerage firm with which he did business and was admitted to the private office of the senior partner. . ees “Mr. Daly, have you heard anything that would ~ lead you to suppose that Some syndicate is trying — to corner J. & D. shares?” the young broker — oe The broker shook his head. 3 “Myr. Beaver and another broken named Hink- ley, of the Mills Building, called at my office short time ago looking for the stock, which they J. & D. shares. Sipe ee a4 the wire,” came back the reply. 4ee a few minutes Mr. Daly was informed th Beaver didn’t want the stock, and he repea fact to Bob. ngs “Will you communicate with John Hinkley,
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ae - ‘FIGHTING THE . the Mills Building?” asked the young speculator. -- The name is not familiar to me,” said the - proker. ‘“‘T’ll have to look him up in the telephone book.” - _ On consulting the directory of subscribers he - found several Hinkileys, but none of them a broker with an office in the Mills Building. ~ “Looks kind of fishy, Yorke. I. guess it’s an- “Somebody is likely to call and ask you to buy J. & D. of them, or ask you to sell it for them on - the chance that you'll buy it in yourself, thinking - it is scarce.” : Then Bob told him about the little old lady in black who had called on the heels of Hinkley and asked him to sell 2,000 shares of J. & D. for her. “Got the certificates with you?” asked the _ broker. x _ *Yes,” and Bob produced them. Mr: Daly examined them carefully. Pid’ you notice that the interest was due on these certificates since 1883?” SPY es; “Sir.” ° “Didn’t that strike you as odd?” “The old lady particularly explained that when - ghe told me that the certificates were mislaid for sixteen years.” “She told you that? What is her name?” “Bowen. The certificates are in her husband’s ~name—John Bowen. Hes been dead for sixteen ~ years.” When the owner of a block of stock fails to - all for his interest after the lapse of some years the stock is usually advertised for by the com- pany in order to find out where it is. The news- papers sometimes find the circumstance valuable to use as a bit of news. I don’t remember ever - yeading anything about missing J. & D. shares. The best thing you can do is to go and see the - Natural to me. 8 names, may be using her as a catspaw to roast you.” Bob lost no time calling at the office of the J. & D. Company. The secretary was out of town and the young speculator was advised to go and ~ see the big banking firm of Bizzard & Co. _ “They do our business,” said the clerk in eharge. “You ought to be able to find out all you ‘want to know from them.” “So Bob rushed around to the office of Bizzard . Co.- There Bob was told that the best place to get desired information was at the office of the ecretary of the Stock Exchange. Accordingly the boy hustled over to the Exchange. : “He showed the secretary the five certificates, ‘and told him -how they had been mislaid for six- e have received no word that these certifi- tes were lost or missing,” said the Stock Ex- - other attempt to unload stock on you in some way... . trick. ; MONEY KINGS 5. causing him a lot of trouble. Still, as he had picaty of time at his disposal, he didn’t make any ick, He called on Mr. Fogg, who was one of the guns of the Street. He was admitted to the pri- vate office after sending in his ecard. : “What can I do for you, young man?” asked Fogg in a pompous tone and manner. “T have here five J. & D. certificates on which the interest appears to be due and unpaid, owing to the fact that they were mislaid for sixteen years. As you sold them to Mr. Bowen I called to seé what you think they’re worth now.” “Worth!” exclaimed Mr. Fogg after looking at them. “You might frame them and then they’d be worth the frame, anyhow.” ““How is that?” asked Bob, greatly taken aback. “How is it?” answered the broker. “These cer- tificates are no good.” “No good!” “No. Except as waste paper. As you see, they are dated April 6, 1888. When the road went to the wall in 1888 these certificates were called in sree new ones were issued in their place. That’s all. Mr. Fogg turned to his desk as though he had said all he considered necessary on the subject, and Bob, getting up, left the office. He returned to Mr. Daly and told him the result of his investigations. The broker grinned and said trat it was nothing more than he expected. “You’d better frame one of those certificates as an object lesson,” he said, “for I don’t believe the old lady in black will return for her money.” The broker proved a true prophet—the old lady did not come back. The game sprung on the little speculator was considered a failure when the old lady reported that the boy would not advance $10,000 or buy the stock offhand. As the certificates would not stand investiga- tion the originator of the plot did not care to take any more chances, and it was just as well for , him that he didn’t, for the indignant Bob might have made it hot for him through his emissary. CHAPTER IV.—Bob Makes A Fine Haul In : D. & G. in Bob’s confidence in human nature down in ‘Walle Street received a severe jolt through the J. & D. “Tt seems to me that some brokers are willin to work any old game to get at a slice of your fieece. Eternal watchfulness is the price of safe- ty down here. You really can’t afford to put trust in any one if there’s a loop-hole for him to crawl. out at. There’s one satisfaction, however, these chaps who have been making a break for me right along haven’t. gained anything so far for their trouble. Mr. Beaver seems to be one of them, and one of these days I may give him a shock that he won’t forget in a hurry.” It was about this time that Bob saw a chance | to get in on the market again. For weeks the financial papers had been print- ing stories about dissensions among the stock- holders of the D. & G. road. A clique of finan- ciers thought they saw their way to scooping in the control of the company by buying up the — shares of those who wanted to unload their hold-
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\ G FIGHTING THE ings. The insiders hastened to intrench them- selves behind their hold on the company... They ' found, however, that many of their former sup- porters had deserted them for the opposition. The result was that a battle royal was soon being waged by the rival factions to get and hold a ma- jority of the stock. : Thousands of shares had been sold to the pub- lic and all these were now being eagerly sought after. Bob saw his chance and jumped right in. The price was advancing every day. He left an order with Broker Daly to secure him any part of 10,000 shares at the current figures on margin, and it took the firm several days to fill the order. The stock was now growing scarce, for almost all the brokers were buying it, and holding it for the high price they Saw in the future. eost him various prices, the average being 80. In a week the price was at par, and three days afterward 110 was offered and refused for the stock. At the end of two weeks all Wall Street was crazy as sales were made at 130 in the Ex- change. D. & G. had never in all its history fetched such money, and the end was not yet. Brokers who had intended to sell at par were now * refusing 131. Nothing was talked about day after day but the furore over D..& G. The elec- tion was approaching and more strenuous exer- tions than ever were being put forth by both sides to get. the stock. Millions were drawn upon with the idea that it would all come back eventually in one shape or another. Bob concluded that this sort of thing couldn’t keep up much longer. Only the craze for fabulous profits that held the Street in its grasp kept the price up as it was. So one afternoon Bob put an advertisement in the “Daily Argus” that he was open to offers for 1,000 shares -of D. & G. Next morning his office was crowded with brok- ers by nine o’clock. He was down early and re- ceived them one by one behind the railing. To the first broker who interviewed him he sold 300 shares at 135, giving him an order C. O. D. on Broker Daly for the stock. He»kept on selling small quantities from 100 shares up at 135 until he had exhausted 5,000 shares, no one seeming to notice that he had sold more than his advertise- ment called for. . Finally a representative of the party in control reached his desk. “How many shares have you left?” asked the gentleman. - “How many do you want?” asked Bob. “All I can get.” : “What are you willing to give for any part of 5,000 shares?” “Why, you advertised 1,000 for sale, and you must have got rid of nearly all of that by this time,” said the gentleman in surprise. “No matter what I advertised, I can sell you 5,000 if you.want them.” “What do you ask?” “J want 136.” ; “T’}] take the block at that price.” “All right. Here’s an order on Thomas Daly & Co. for 5,000 shares, C. O. D.” When the gentleman left Bob told the half a dozen late-comers that he had sold out, and had no more to deliver at any price. Two days later Bob got a check from. Daly & Co. for $650,000, which ineluded the margin he had put up. > [: \ Bob’s shares’ a PP an eer Ee MONEY KINGS He had made the enormous profit of $55 a share on the deal, something that only happens under such exceptional circumstances as that involved in the D. & G. fight. ZF A week later the annual meeting of the road was held and the insiders won out. 2 Their victory cost them millions of dollars, but they had to swallow their medicine. The price of the stock began to tumble at once. In fact, a reg- ular panic set in at the Exchange, and when the ~ smoke of the slump cleared away D. & G. was — roosting at 90. Hundreds of brokers and speculators had made — all kinds of money out of the fight, and hundreds _ of others, who held on too long, lost all they had — up.on the deal. = ; by It is doubtful if anyone did much better as a whole than Bob, whose “capital was increased from $140,000 to $690,000. And nobody but the — firm of Daly & Co. knew that he had been so ~ lucky. Bob hadn’t forgotten the fact that Wil- — liam Norris had called. on him and under the — guise of friendship had given him a tip that would have cost him many dollars had he used it. He wasn’t aware, however, that Norris had been at the back of many other attempts to reach his — pile. The broker was too busy a man, as a aie . to give more than occasional attention to the little — *speculator, whom he found rather too shrewd to — pbe taken in with chaff. 3 : Still he did not altogether forget the boy. The e fact that Bob had managed. to stand him off — piqued him not a little, and he determined to get . ; the better of him some time. One day the little — speculator heard, on undoubted apthouitys that a number of big traders had come together for the — purpose of cornering L. & M. shares. Of course — he, began to figure on getting in himself on the — ‘ground floor and reaping another harvest out of — his inside information. The market price of L. ,- & M. was 68 then, which was low for the stock. — Bob went to see Mr. Daly and left an order with — i him to buy any part of 25,000 shares. The broker — started to fill the order, but soon found that the stock was quite scarce. After four days’ hustling — he barely succeeded in getting 20,000 shares. He notified Bob that that was the best he could do. Daly’s messenger had just gone away, after leay- ing the note, when Mr. Norris walked into Bob’s — onice. ae “How do you do, Yorke?” said the broker pleas: _antly. “As I was in the building I thought I would drop in and see how you were getting on!” _ “That’s right,” replied the little speculator; — “take a seat.” ee The trader did so and tried to pump the boy, — put without much success. Tas _“Are you buying anything at all?” asked Nor- _ ris. ee ‘a : “Well,” drawled Bob, “I’m thinking of buying some L. & M. Got any?” rie The boy ae him to say ‘‘No,” and was sur- — prised when he said: Pe ae “T’ve got 2,000 I can let you haye. What are — you giving?” a ee “Sixty-eight,” replied Bob. eevee oe “J want 68 1-4,” said Norris. _ one “T’ll_take you,” replied the little speculator — promptly ; ; : roe
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FIGHTING THE MONEY KINGS - 7 . “Are you paying cash or do you want it on margin?” : “Y’ll pay for it on the delivery of the certifi- cates.” “Call at my office with the money and you can have them right away.” “All right,” said Bob, exchanging memoran- dums with him. “I'll be there inside of an hour.” -“That is satisfactory. Do you want any more?” ~“T thought 2,000 was all you had.” “Tt is, but I guess I can get you all you want.” __ Mr. Norris’ reply convinced Bob that the broker ~ had no idea that the stock was scarce. It imme- diately suggested a plan to catch the astute trader in a little trap if he would bite, so he said ~ in an indifferent way: “{ don’t know that I have the ready cash at present to handle any more, though I’d like to get ~ about 5,000 additional shares.” “T’l] buy you 5,000 and hold them for you on the usual margin. How will that do?” “No,” replied Bob. “I don’t want to buy on “margin. Doing anything in options?” “Not as a rule. Why?” . “T’d be willing to buy 5,000 L. & M. on a fif- teen-day-option if you wanted to sell the stock that way.” - Norris looked at Bob sharply. After a moment he said: : “What are you buying L. & M. for?” “Just to be doing something. Things have been dull lately.” ; “Just to be doing something!” exclaimed the broker. “Huh! I guess you are looking for a rise in the stock.” “T’m not offering to buy L. & M. for fun.” : “What makes you think L. & M. is going up? ~ Seems to me thé tendency is in the other direc- tion.” “J think it is about as lew as it’s going to get, and ought to take a turn.” : Privately Mr. Norris didn’t agree with him, so he said: _ “What are you willing to give for the call?” “What do you want?” — “Well, Pil let you have it for 73.” - “P'}]) give’ you 72. wie eg eone argument the broker agreed to let ‘him have the option at that, Bob to put up 75 per cent. of the current value, which would be $17,000, as a deposit, which would be forfeited to the broker if the boy failed to call for the shares within the stipulated time. For fear that _ Mr. Norris might learn the true state of the mar- ket with reference to L. & M., Bob decided to ac- company the broker to his office to complete the “deal, stopping at the safe deposit vaults on the way to get the $152,000 to pay for the two 1,000- share certificates and the deposit on the option, So he told Mr. Norris he would go with him and gettle the matter right away. This was quite ‘satisfactory to the broker, and they went out to- _ gether. © , “Ts this where you keep your money?” asked Norris as they entered the vaults. - “Yes,” replied Bob. turned to his office with the option and the cer- tificates of stock. “ Twenty minutes later the little speculator re- CHAPTER V.—Which Introduces Kittie Clover. On the whole Norris was very well satisfied with his option deal. He thought that there was nothing to prevent him from going. into the mar- ket and buying 5,000 shares of L. & M. at 68, with the certainty of making $4 a share profit on it, providing Bob found it profitable to call and pay for the stock. If, on the contrary, the little specu- lator found it more advantageous to sacrifice his’ deposit by default, the broker would still make the comfortable little sum of $17,000. Of course 5,000 shares would cost him $340,000, and that amount of money would be tied up for fifteen days, which would cost him something in the way of interest, for he would be obliged to hypothecate the shares for 66 per cent. of their current value. - There was another way by which he could get around it and save some of the interest. That was to wait and see whether the stock was going to rise before buying it. That was a risky way, and not usually followed by dealers in options. William Norris was a broker who often took long . chances to make an enhanced profit, and as luck seemed to follow him he generally came out at the head of the game. In the present case L. & M. had been slowly falling for ten days, and in his opinion it was likely to go lower before it be- gan to rise again. He figured that in a couple of days he would be able to buy the 5,000 shares for 65 or 66. That would mean an extra profit of $10,000 or $15,000 in his pocket. ; The slump in the price had been brought about by the syndicate that intended booming the stock, for the purpose of buying it in as low as possible. Mr. Norris did not go to the Exchange and buy the 5,000 shares that afternoon, so he remained in ignorance of the fact of its scarcity. Next day L. & M. went down to 67 3-4, and Broker Norris smiled grimly when he saw the quotation on the tape. The slight decline did not worry Bob at all, for it was not unexpected by him. That after- noon he was walking down the corridor toward his office when he saw a girl of perhaps seventeen come out of one of the nearby offices... She looked so pale and delicate that Bob glanced at her with some interest and not a little sympathy. She started for the elevator, but had not gone more than a yard before the little speculator saw her totter and throw up her hands. He sprang to her assistance and was just in time to catch her in his arms as she uttered a sigh and fainted dead away. ; “My gracious!” he ejaculated. what’s the matter with her?” He felt that it was up to him to do something for her, so he carried her into-his office and laid her on the lounge. He sent Dan to the nearest cafe for a glass of brandy, and while his boy was gone he proceeded to bathe the girl’s face and chafe her hands and temples. By the time Dan returned with the cognac the girl was reviving, “IT wonder - and she came entirely to herself after Bob had poured a part of the liquor down her throat. She was a very pretty young lady, and Bob took an immediate interest in her. She looked as if she belonged to a good family, and possessed a win-~ some and intelligent countenance. As soon as consciousness returned to her she started up and wanted to know where she was and what had hap-
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8 FIGHTING THE MONEY KINGS pened to her. Bob told her that he had caught her as she was falling to the floor of the corridor outside in a faint. Then he had brought her into his office and did his best to revive her. “Tam very much obliged to you, and very sorry I have caused you so much trouble,” she said in a sweet tone, while she looked at him gratefully. “Don’t mention it, miss. The trouble was noth- ing. I am very glad I was at hand to be of ser- vice to you when you needed it. Don’t be in a hurry to go. You may rest yourself until you feel fully recovered. May I ask your name?” ; “Kittie Clover.” “My name is Robert Yorke. I am a trader in the stock market, and this is my office. You are welcome to remain here as long as you wish.” “Thank you,” she replied. “You are very kind. I will stay a little while, for I feel quite weak.” “You do not lock strong,” replied Bob. “In fact, you look as if you’d been recently ill.” “JT have been. I’ve been very sick for several weeks. I have lost so much time that it is neces- sary I should get a position as soon as possible. . I answered several advertisements and got some replies. I came down today to see the people. They all put me off, which means that they do not want me.” As the girl concluded her eyes filled with tears and she looked discouraged. Bob felt sorry for her. : If he had had work for her to do he would have hired her himself. As he talked with her an idea struck hmi. a “Tt’s pretty ‘ha¥d for a girl to catch on to a Wall Street job, I’ll admit, for there are so many applicants for every position that becomes va- cant. I think it would be a better plan for you to start out for yourself as a public stenogra- . pher.” “How could I?” she asked. “I have no money with which to hire desk room, and I am not strong enough yet to go around looking for customers.” “Til help you if you will let me, Miss Clover. Tl let you have the use of a part of my office ~ until you secure trade enough to pay your own way. Further, as you are not in shape to canvass _ for yourself yet a while, I’ll see if I can get you enough work,o keep you fairly busy so that you can earn wages.” “You are most kind, Mr. Yorke, but as we scarcely know each other it would hardly be right for me to avail myself of such generosity on your part. Believe me, I am very grateful to you for you offer, but——” “Qh, come now, Miss Clover, you’d better ac- cept, for you may not have such another chance to get into what might prove eventually to be a very paying business. I know two young ladies who started out in a very small way, and are now making very good incomes. I really use my office very little. I don’t have many callers. My boy Dan here is growing rusty for lack of exercise. He shall carry your work to your customers with- out any charge to you.” Miss Clover protested that it was impossible ‘for her to take up with his offer, as she had no type- writer. Ss “T’ll buy you a machine and you can pay for it as you can afford to,” said Bob. \ As he pressed her again to accept she said she would like to talk the matter over with her mother before giving a positive answer. Bob saw her as far as the elevator, and she promised +. ” = to call on him in the morning as soon as she could come downtown. ? CHAPTER VI—The Little Speculator Makes Nearly Three-quarters of a Million. About ten o’clock next morning Miss Clover ap- peared at the office and was invited to a seat in- side the railing. She looked much improved over ~ the previous afternoon. 3 - “Well, have you concluded to take up with my offer?” Bob asked her. “Yes,” she replied; “and both mamma and'I — are very grateful to you for your kindness in giv- ing me the chance to do something.” “All right,” returned the little speculator; “I will see about the typewriting as soon as I go out. I will also have some business cards printed for you.. Come down tomorrow morning and everything will be ready for you. Then we will see about getting you work.” 4 Miss Clover took her leave and Bob went up to _ Broadway to order the make of typewriter she — had told him she was accustomed to. That after- noon Bob secured the girl two customers and next day she ‘had work enough to keep her fairly — busy up to three o’clock. She then took some of her cams and did a little canvassing on her own account. While Bob was helping the young lady out of her troubles L. & M. stock went down to 67 1-2, and then suddenly hounded up to 70. Mr. Norris then regretted that he hadn’t bought at 68 and went to the Exchange to secure the 5,000 shares. He offered 70, but no stock came out. Then he offered 70 1-8, but still none came to the — surface. While he was trying to get it a big — broker came’ to the pole and offered 71 for any part of 5,000 shares. He got a few hundred, and afterward the supply seemed to run dry, though — he made bids of 72, 78, 74 and 75. : ; Broker Norris looket aghast at the trader’s — bids, especially at the last one, which was three points above what he had engaged to deliver the stock to Bob for. He suddenly began to realize that some combination had cornered what was on _ the market. He rushed from the Exchange and made a tour of the offices to try and scare up what he wanted. The best he could do was to get 1,000 shares in small lots at 75. When he re- pune to his office he was boiling over with” — wrath. beoreinit “That blamed boy had inside information when Be he persuaded me to sell him that option? Now he’s got me where the shog pinches. I’m liable to lose a wad of money over the deal instead of capturing the profit I was looking for. This is | enough to ruffle the disposition of a saint. To be caught in a trap by & mere lad—especially one I have been trying in vain to catch myself. I~ must make another attempt tomorrow morning to get that stock.” econ Norris surprised his employees by getting down unusually early. He*started out early to try and : get the remaining 4,000 shares. While he was_ on his tour the stock boomed to 80 on the Ex- change. That made him pretty hot under the ~ collar. ote He found a broker who had 500 shares of I. & M., and Norris had to give 82 to get them. By noon he located 1,500 shares more, for which ne "1 & sy 3 aoe
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FIGHTING THE MONEY KINGS 9 was obliged to pay 84. He was still 2,000 shares shy, and he could not tell what he might have to pay for them. ; He called on Beaver and sent him around to Bob’s office to try and buy back the 2,000 shares he had sold the boy outright. Bob was in when Beaver called. “T came around to see if you had any L. & M. stock,” said Beaver. : “T have,” replied the little speculator. “What do you want for, it?” ; “Ninety-five.” “Ninety-five!” gasped Beaver. “You don’t seem to be overstocked with modesty, young man. Why, the latest quotation was 85.” : “That so?” 5 : “Yes, that’s so,” replied Beaver warmly. The stock hasn’t been as high as even 90 in an age.” “That doesn’t prove it won’t go par this trip. “PH give you 88.” ; Bob shook his head and Beaver left in great disgust. Fifteen minutes afterward another broker called. Dan announced his name _ as Hooper. He said he had heard that Bob had some L. & M. shares. > : “You heard correctly,” replied the little specu- lator. “What are you asking for the stock?” “Ninety-five.” Reece cardities! It’s going at 86 on the Ex- _ change,” said the visitor. : ~ “Then that’s the place for you to buy it,” re- plied Bob calmly. ‘ i: re “You aren't really asking 95, are you? “J ~won’t sell a share less than 95.” “All right. I can’t buy then. My limit is 900.” ~ So Hooper bowed himself out. “| bet Beaver sent him here,” thought Bob. - “And Norris sent Beaver. I have got Mr. Norris in a tight box, I guess. He seems to be 2,000 shares short on the amount his option calls for. Tl bet he’s the sorest man in Wall Street about ‘this time.” ‘The boy laughed quietly to himself, then put mn. his hat and went over to the Exchange. L. & M. closed that day at 89 and opened next morning at 90. At noon it was 95 and Bob sent word to Daly & Co. to sell 10,000 shares in small lots at the market. It was snapped up in no time by different brokers. Then Bob sent Dan to Mr. Norris, calling on him to deliver the 5,000 shares of L. & M. at 72, as provided by the option. _ he broker responded in person. He had ought 2,000 of the shares Bob had just thrown on the market, He tried tobe cool when he walked into Bob’s office, but the little speculator Baw that he was as mad asa hatter. _ fy through with the option business,” he ‘growled as he took the seat beside the boy’s desk. “Why?” asked Bob innocently. : _ “Why!” roared the broker. “Bécause this one has cost me a pretty penny.” ae _ “I should think you would have provided for the option at the time you sold it to me. Most _ brokers do,” replied Bob. ? : “Took here, Yorke, you ran in a gold brick on “me when you proposed that option deal.” _.“How did 1? ~You sold the option of your own _ free will, didn’t you?” : “You worked me with stacked cards.” * > . “In what way, Mr. Norris?” “You had inside information that the stock was already cornered when you proposed to buy that option. You simply played me for all I was worth, and like. a fool I fel] into your trap. I sha’n’t forget it. Some day I'll get square with you.” cf “Perhaps you forget that you tried to play me for an innocent the first day you called here and introduced yourself. You offered me a tip that, was no tip at all. Had I gone to your friend Beaver’s office and bought that stock of him which you recommended to my attention I should have lost several thousand dollars. Do you cali that a square deal? If you do I don’t. If you allowed yourself to be caught in the little trap I put before you that’s your misfortune. You ought to have kept a sharper lookout. I have found that every broker will try to get the best of his neighbor if he can. It’s everybody for himself down here, and the man who doesn’t keep wide awake all the time is apt to slip up. Well, did you bring the stock?” “Here are 3,000 shares, and here is an order on Daly & Co. for 2,000 more at 95. You can de- duct $190,000, which yo will have to pay Daly & Co., from what you owe me.” “Five thousandgshares at 72 amounts to $360,- 000,” said Bob, figuring on a pad. “Irom that I deduct $190,000 in lieu of the 2,000 shares, plus my $17,000 deposit, making $207,000. Take that from $360,000, and I owe you $153,000. Write a receipt for that amount and @me with me to the safe deposit vaults.” “You must have a pretty big capital at your back,” said Norris in surprise. “T’ve got enough to carry on my business,” re- plied Bob. ‘ While the broker was making out the receipt Bob locked the 3,000 shares in his safe. Then Norris accompanied him to the vaults and re- ceived his money. After that business had been - settled Bob called on Daly & Co. and told the senior partner to dispose of his other 10,000 shares. = “Here’s an order on you for 2,000 of those shares you sold for me at 95. Sell them over again and deduct $190,000 from my account, as I have received value for them.” As Mr. Daly looked surprised, Bob told him all about his option deal Daly laughed. ‘ “You caught him badly. Besides the $46,000 he’s lost on those 2,000 shares he hag undoubt- edly lost several thousand on the other 3,000 shares. Altogether he won’t forget that option deal in a hurry.” . “He told me that he was through with that kind of business,” laughed Bob. _ ak means that the next time he sells an option he’ll take care to have the stock on hand to meet the call,” returned Daly. “So you want me to turn 10,000 shares loose on the Exchange, eh?” “Yes. In small lots, so as not to disturb the price. The brokers seem to be hungry for it.” Daly put on his hat and went over to the Ex- with © Norris. ‘change, where he gradually let out the shares at 96. Next day Bob astonished Daly by turning over to him the certificates for 5,000 shares more of - * M.,. with directions to sell them at the’ marke’
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10 “You'll make a mint of money out of this deal, Yorke,” he said. “T’m in-business to make all I can,” replied the little speculator. The stock went for 97. Bob’s combined profit after all expénses had been paid amounted to $720,000. That made him worth $1,410,000 in cash, a pretty tidy sum for a boy operator who had come from Beantown a few weeks before with $40,000 in his pocket. CHAPTER VII.—Plotting to Do the Little Speculator Up. L. & M. went nearly to par before the syndi- eate succeeded in unloading its holdings, and when the support of the combination was en- tirely withdrawn from the stock it began to drop. It went down slowly without any panic setting in, but as usual a good many small speculators lost money. These were the foolish ones who had . bought at top prices, and there seems to be plenty of enthusiastics doing that during every boom. Bob was now a real millionaire, and well on the road toward his second million. Mr. Daly, the broker who did the boy’s business, wag the only man in Wall Street who had @ line on Bob’s financial standing, and of course he wasn’t saying anything about it. While Bob was working his L. & M. deal he was also doing what he could to help Kittie Clover get customers. He succeeded so well that the gi¥l now had all the work she could do between nine o’clock and four, which were her office hours. Sometimes Bob remained at the office till she was ready to go home, and then he escorted her to the Hanover Square elevated station. He soon learned that she hada younger brother who went to school and their mother was living in a small inexpensive flat in Harlem. That they had seen much better days when her father was alive. He had been a merchant in the hide and leather dis- trict, but at his death his affairs were found so involved that they got nothing out of his estate. All Mrs. Clover received was a $2,000 life insur- ance, artd most of that was gone now. As time passed Bob and Kittie grew very friendly, and finally he began calling on her once a week at her home of an evening. One evening he invited her and her mother to go to the theatre with him, his mother and-his two sisters. They accepted, and thus the two families be- came acquainted. Mrs. Yorke was quite attract- ed to Kittie’s mother, and Kittie herself took a great fancy to Bob’s sisters, as they did to her. Thus a warm friendship sprang up between all concerned. Bob was pleased at this, for he had taken a strong fancy to the girl, and wanted his family to like her as well as he did himself. Al- though Bob did not dream of the fact, there was trouble gathering on his horizon. William Nor- ris had lost nearly $75,000 through that option deal, and he was awfully sore on the boy. In the eyes of the-world Norris was an eminently re- spectable man, and he conducted himself, out- wardly, at least, to warrant that estimate. But under the polished veneer of respectability there shimbered passions that were dangerous to him- self as well as others. He was vindictive for one . thing. : FIGHTING THE MONEY KINGS If anybody wronged him he made it a point to get back at him. As an instance of this it was known to a select few that he had brought about — the ruin of a humble carpenter who had done him out of a sum of money by leaving a flat owned by Mr. Norris without paying a month’s rent, and the broker never rested till he got square with him. The means he took to effect his purpose were not Christian-like, but Mr. Norris was only. a Christian on Sunday and when attending vestry meetings of his church, or donating liberal sums to the moral welfare of the heathen in foreign lands. Therefore, when Mr. Norris figured up his loss in the option deal his rage and chagrin were so great that he vowed to get square with the juts speculator, and he intended to keep his word. : Beaver was a kind of kindred spirit to Norris. Much younger in years, he lived the life of a man about town, for marriage never had had attrac- tions enough for him to win him over to the bene- dicts. He lived in fashionable bachelor apart- ments somewhere uptown, belonged to the same clubs of which Norris was a member, as well as a few additional ones. He was popular among his friends, and spent his money freely. He also — lost considerable sums at gambling joints, but as he was successful in Wall Street his losses didn’t — bother him much. Beaver’s morals were neither better nor worse than the majority of those with whom he asso- ciated—which isn’t saying that he was a paragon. of virtue by long odds. Under the spur of temp- tation he could easily have been worse. : = Norris knew Beaver like a book, and having much stronger will power he had considerable in= ts fluence over the younger man. As soon as the broker began to figure on getting back at Bo Yorke he took Beaver into his confidence. Ke “That boy has made a wad of money out of the L. & M. boom. I wouldn’t be surprised if he copped half a million,” he said to Beaver. ; “As much as that?” ejaculated the other broker in surprise. “How do you know?” “Well, I know he did me up to the tune of $75,-__ 000,000,” growled Norris. “As much as that?” exclaimed Beaver, aston- ished at the admission. ; : “Yes, as much as that. I wouldn’t admit it to’ another man but you, Beaver.” , “How did he do it?” : Then Norris told him how he had been caught by the boy in the option deal. “On those 5,000 shares he must have made $125,000 alone. Then he probably cleared $60,- 000 on the other 2,000 he bought of me at 681-8. The young rascal got hold of inside information about the boom on the start, and that’s how he worked me. Of course he bought in more shares than he got from me. He probably put all his— available capital into the deal on the ground floor. -_ As he was supposed to have had considerably over. $100,000 in cash the dickens only can tell what he made out of L. & M. on margin, though he gave _ me to understand that he was not buying. on mar- gin; but that was all poppycock when he had winning tip to operate with. I’ll bet he’s worth — three-quarters of a million to-day if he’s worth a “ cent.” years. : : “Don’t. talk about a boy of his years, he’s ag om, SOR ee OS OR wart ae “Tt doesn’t seem possible that a boy of his : AR TY RT he TA RS 5 RE Re re ees Sees ees ar: Pe ees 7 ek
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FICHTING THE MONEY KINGS ; sharp as half the men in the Street, Beaver, just ‘make a note of that fact.” “And you really think he’s worth three-- quarters of a million?” ' -“P’ve a strong suspicion of it. Now, look here, Beaver, I might as well admit to you that I’m after that boy’s scalp. I’m going to get square _ with him for the roasting he gave me if it takes me a year to get around it.” _ “Hfe doesn’t seem like an easy boy to reach. You know we've tried several dodges on him and they all failed. “What new scheme have you in lag cis . My idea is to kidnap him and Work him for some of his wealth.” ; “Kidnap him! That’s a dangerous expedient, Norris. Why, he could have you arrested and put you to all kinds of trouble to square yourself with the authorities.” “He’d have to prove that we kidnapped him.” “We?” exclaimed Beaver. “Yes, you and I. I expect you to help me out, and we'll divide the spoil between us.” “But I don’t like the idea of getting mixed up - with the law,” Beaver objected. ; “No danger of that if we work the plan right. You don’t suppose that I want to compromise my- self any more than you do. Remember, I have more at stake than you—I have a wife and fam- ily, while you are a kind of free lance. We must carry the job through without taking any more chances than ‘we can help.” “Have you got your plan ouflined?” “YT have, but there are many details that need careful consideration. Come up to my house to- night, and we'll go over them together.” “P11 be on hand. I’m interested in learning how you expect to get at his money-bags.” fae “TJ hope to tap him for a quarter of a million.” “A quarter of a million, eh? If you think there’s any chance of getting that much money out of him without any great risk I’m your man; _ but you must remember that I have a healthy re- spect for the law, and I should imagine you ought ‘to have, too.” “The law is not to figure in the case at all. 3 This. matter being arranged, the two brokers me ' CHAPTER VIII.—The Abduction. - _ About. noon next oy Beaver called at Bob’s @ffice. The little speculator was at his desk and received the broker in his usual polite way, 1ough he did not like Beaver for a cent. shout for help which was heard by Kittie. She 11 “T have called to see if you will loan me some money on good security for ten days,” said the broker. , “What security have you to offer?” asked Bob. Beaver mentioned some gilt-edged bonds and said he wanted $50,000. Bob agreed to let him “have the money. “Bring your bonds over any time between this and three o’clock and I’ll let you have the cash,” he said. “All right,” replied Beaver and he went away. The little speculator got the money from ~his safe deposit box and put it in his safe. At a quarter to three a messenger appeared with a note from Beaver. He said that he was obliged to attend a directors’ meeting” of a certain indus- trial corporation and that it would be four o’clock before he expected to be able to get away. Under the circumstances he asked Bob to wait for him, as he wanted to use the money he had arranged to borrow, at five o’clock. Bob answered that he would wait until five o’clock, but he hoped Beaver would get there before that hour. It so happened that Kittie Clover had a lot. of work that afternoon, and when she found that Bob was going, to remain at the office later than usual she, asked him if he had any objection to her staying also, to finish her work. “Why certainly not, Kittie,” he said. “Glad to have your company. I'll see you uptown at five.” _ So while the little speculator sat at his desk. reading an afternoon paper the click of the girl’s typewriter sounded sharp and clear in the room. At a quarter of five a cab stopped in front of the office building, and two gentlemen got out of . it and entered the big doorway. They took the elevator for the fifth floor, on which Bob had his office. These men were William Norris and George Beaver. None of their friends would . have recognized them, as they wore. heavy black beards covering most of their faces. Norris knocked on Bob’s door. Kittie, who had just put on her hat preparatory to going home when Bob was ready, opened the door. The dis- pulsed brokers were rather taken aback to er in the office. “Has Mr. Yorke gone home?” Norris asked the young lady. “No, sir; he is at his desk. Will you walk in?” “Well, no. Ask Mr. Yorke to step to the door. I want to see him just a minute.” es Kittie carried Norris’ message to Bob. The boy at once went to the door. Norris and Beaver had retired down the corridor a few feet. see re ” “Td like to see you about——” he began, - fumbling in an inside pocket for something he . appeared to be in search of, While Bob was looking at him Beaver sKpped_ behind him and suddenly threw one arm around his neck, securing a strangle hold on the boy. Norris at once jumped forward and pressed a handkerchief saturated with some kind of a drug over his face. ‘ 5S Bob put up a desperate struggle, but was held by the men. He succeeded-in giving one muffled -
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12 FIGHTING THE ran to the door and saw what was going on. pluckly little girl, she sprang at Beaver Being a and began pounding him for all she was worth. r Bob was by this time nearly insensible, so Beaver let go of him and grabbed the girl. As she started to scream the broker caught her by the throat and forced her back into the office, holding her till he believed she had fainted. Then he shut the door, rejoined Norris, who was holding the now unconscious Bob, and helped him carry the boy to the elevator. When the cage on its way down empty stopped at the floor, the elevator man looked-surprised at seeing Yorke, who he knew well, in that condition. Norris hastily explained that he was a physician who had been called to attend the little speculator. ‘“He’s suffering from an attack of organic heart trouble, and I must get him to my office as soon as possible. His heart has completely collapsed.” The elevator man, believing him to be a doctor, was willing to take his word. : On reaching the main corridor Norris quickly * earried the limp form of the boy to the sidewalk in his arms. At that moment another elevator rushed down with the excited Kittie in it. “She had told the elevator man the true state of affairs and both started for the street, where they saw the cab waiting to receive the boy. * The girl, fleet as a deer, outstripped the man. “Help! Help!” screamed Kittie, rushing forward and striking at Norris with her parasol. Beaver, who was holding the door of the cab open, seized Kittie and swung her spinning against the elevator man who was following at her heels. . The man caught the girl and saved her from a fall, and then made a spring at Beaver. The broker was an athlete and clever boxer, Quick as a flash he planted a heavy blow in the man’s face and sent him dazed to the ground. In the meantime Norris had placed Bob in the eab and sprang in after him, closing the door. _As Kittie ran to the cab door and screamed to attract attention, Beaver sprang up beside the driver. ; The cabman whipped up his horses and away went the vehicle toward the river end of the street. : Kittie made an effort to follow, but the excite- ment was too much for her, and she fell down in a_faint. ; A Wall Street detective put in an appearance at this moment and darted after the flying cab, but a loaded truck coming along Pearl Street cut him off, and by the time he got around it the vehicle was nearly a block away. “'The cab turned north up Water, Street, and having a clear way before it the driver gave his horses the reins. E Back in Wall Street there was excitement to “burn around the Minerva Building. - sto ‘ oe ehat had happened, and’a mob gathered about : The sashes were immovable like the others. with a fowel he felf mucha - to admit air to the room. ra panes! Then the little speculator sought the single door — in the room, only to find that it was locked. = “Looks as if I’m a prisoner here,” he muttere in a chagrined tone. “Now, what is the mea‘ of all this?” os sea
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FIGHTING THE As he couldn’t answer the question himself it remained unanswered. “How the deuce could I ha¥e been brought away from my Wall Street office in an unconscious con- dition and nobody notice that something crooked was going on?” That seemed to be soniething of a mystery to Bob, especially as he remembered that Kittie was in his office at the time. He paced up and down the room thinking mat- ‘ters over. The more he considered his predicament the more disatisfied and disgusted he became over it. ii Bob looked at the windows meditatively. = It would be an easy matter to smash glass, sash and the shutters outside 'with one of the chairs in the room. : That would-make a big noise, and after he had cleared the way he might find it impossible to escape by the window, owing to its height from — the ground. = While he was considering the matter he heard a ~ gound outside the door. It struck him that somebody was about to enter the room, so on the spur of the moment he de- cided to feign unconsciousness, and ‘with that end in view he threw himself on the bed. - Hardly had he done so before he heard a soft click as the key was cautiously turned in the lock, and then the door was opened. 4A man appeared in the opening with a lamp in i ee doa on the threshold and looked toward the bed. ‘ : : Seeing Bob stretched out still and motionless he advanced boldly into the room. Instantly the. whe ager formed a bold : rv eseape in his mind. Fie detrader stepped to the bed and looked cx he boy. , : dor galt Piensa” he muttered. “It’s about ‘time he came around.” as ; As he started to turn away Bob swung his leg upward and kicked the lamp out of his hand. “Tt flew against the nearest wall with a crash, dropped to the floor and the light went out. “Before the startled and astonished man could move the boy sprang up and struck him a swing- ing blow in the face with his fist. ‘The intruder staggered back from the force of the baa wed it up with another that laid the € é AR aioe P and then the Wall Street boy shut it to and turned the key an effort to break out. The crash was repeated, but though the noise ‘echoed through the house no one else appeared to inquire into the cause of it. : be the front door not house. MONEY KINGS 13 About a quarter of a mile away were lights from many houses which seemed to be the suburbs of a town. : The night was dark, with neither moon nor stars, and the firmament was overcast with clouds. A cool, invigorating breeze swept through the trees on either of the roadway. “Well, I’m free, and I’ll bet those rascals, who- ever they are, won’t get hold of me again,” mut- tered Bob as he started for the lights, intending to learn his whereabouts. - He didn’t believe that he was very far from New York. The only thing that bothered him was that he had left his hat at the house, but as he felt a small roll of bills intact in his vest pocket he guessed he would be able to buy a new hat in the town ahead. The first building he reached was a kind of road- house. An automobile was drawn up before the door. Through the window Bob could see a bar, and num- ber of persons drinking at it. He entered and stepped up to one of the men at the end of the bar. “Will you tell me what place this is?” he in- quired, , The man stared at him. E “What place? Don’t you know? Why, it’s Fordham, of course.” Bob was not much surprised to find that he was within the limits of Greater New York. He thanked the man and withdrew. _ Passing along the side of the house he glanced in at an open window. There, to his surprise, he saw Mr. Norris and Mr. Beaver seated at_a small table drinking and smoking. The room was small and they were only oc- cupants. The boy immediately judged that the automobile outside was theirs. Suddenly the thought flashed across hise mind that these two brokers might have something to do with his abduction. : Seeing that the,window was partly open, Bob slipped close to it the brokers were talking about. Their conversation came distinctly to his ears. They were talking about him. : Bob learned that it was their purpose to have him carried next day to a lone house on Long Island where he was to be detained until he con- sented to pay $150,000 for his release. : , He was to be told that a band of Black Hand kidnapers, represented by the man he had en- countered at the house up the road, were behind the matter. } Norris had figured that that would remove all suspicion from him and Beaver. ‘ “That’s a mighty nice game you’ve worked on me, gentlemen,’ muttered Bob as he listened to them, “and you'll get quite a shock when you dis- cover that it’s a failure.” When the brokers finished talking about Bob they switched off on a deal in the market they were both interested in, and out of which they ex- pected to make big money. : This was a corner they and their friends had almost effected in. a small Westchester traction road. to see if he could hear what ~
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14 . in a cab by two men. ' We'll have ours at the same time. aa -already secured at They had found out that a block of -30,000 shares, owned by the widow of the late president of the road, was the only thing that/could queer their game. = y The lady, however, was absent in Europe and was not likely to return for an indefinite time. The stock, therefore, they figured, would not be thrown on the market in case of a boom.in the traction shares, and that left only 35,000 shares to be counted on, the greater part of which they had a low price. “Tq like to get a hold of those 30,000 shares,” thought Bob. “Then I wouldn’t do a thing to this boom of yours, Mr. Norris. T’ll bet when I got through with you you and your friends would have to live for a while on a diet of snowballs. When Norris and Beaver rose to leave the room Bob left hi# post under the window and started to hunt up a store where he could buy a hat. He found one not far from the railroad depot; then he boarded the next train for 125th Street station. CHAPTER X.—The Little Speculator Buys a Big Block of Trolley Stock. When Bob reached his home he found his mother and sister in great distress. Kitty and her mother had been over, and ‘the girl had told what took place at the office, and how Bob had been carried off in an unconscious state She explained how she had done all she could to save Bob, but that one of the men had nearly strangled her in the office, and subsequently had almost thrown her down when she reached the sidewalk in pursuit of the kid- napers. The late editions of the evening papers had the story, one alluding to it as the “Mysterious Kid- naping of Wall Street’s Little Speculator.” The case was already in the hands of the head- and reporters of morning pa- pers had called at the flat to see if they could Jearn anything from Bob’s mother. When Bob yushed in on his family about ten o’clock he was received with the greatest demonstrations of joy. It took him half an hour to satisfy their anxious inquiries. He did not tell them that he knew the identity of the men responsible for his abduction. He was not in a position to prove his knowledge. “Well, now, folks,’ he’ said when he had fin- ished his story, “I haven’t had a thing to eat since I ate my lunch at one o’clock. Got a cold bite in the larder?” : “You shall have your dinner in a few minutes, as soon as we can warm it up,” said his mother. We> were waiting dinner for you when Kittie Clover popped in and took our appetites all away with the story of what happened to you.” While dinner was being warmed up Bob went to the corner drug-store and telephoned police quarters detectives, _ headquarters that he had eseaped from the kid- ' napers. He furnished all particulars the man at the other end of the wire asked for, and then went to an A. D. T. messenger office and sent a note to and would let her know all the facts in the morn- ing. : FIGHTING THE MONEY KINGS | Kittie telling her that he had turned up all right, _ After that he went back home, arriving just in time to sit down to the meal. : Next morning he was down early at his office. - Dan was on hand as usual. : 5 Some of the boys he knew had told him the night before that his boss had been abducted from — his office and probably murdered. : se He had then gone out, bought a paper and r the story. When he got home he told his mother what had happened to his employer, and the old Trish woman nearly had a fit. vie heat The morning papers, ‘however, dispelled the anxiety, of Dan and his mother, for they repo ; that the little speculator had escaped from his ab- ductors and returned home. : “Sure, it’s glad I am to see yez, sor,” said Dan when Bob appeared. “Faith, me and me ould ‘wo- man thought yez was kilt entoirely by thim black- guards thot run off wid yez in the cab. Did yez have thim pinched?” i hier “No, Dan, I didn’t have them arrested, but I hope to have that satisfaction yet.” : e “Faith, I hope yez will. They deserve to be sint up the river, so they do.” ath “They'll get all that’s coming to them if I can reach them.” ? ace Just then Kittie came in. She was delighted to see Bob looking as if no- thing of any importance had happened to him. r After she had congratulated him on his escape — he took her by the hands and said: eho ae “T want to thank you for the brave fight you put — up in my behalf, Kittie. The papers gave you ‘ull credit for your pluck.. I’m sorry you were so — reughly handled by one of the rascals, but Pm thinking he’ll get paid in full for it. before he’s — many weeks older.” See “Have you any idea who those men were?” __“T know who they are, and it would surprise you if I disclosed their identity to you, for you’ve seem them both in my office—one of them more than — once. I do not intend to tell anybody but the de- tective I’m going to put on their trail to-day who — they are. If the detective can bring the job home — to them everybody in the city will see their names — and learn their identity in the papers.” Sistas In a short time Bob went to the Wall Street — Detective Bureau and hired a sleuth to go to work on the case. Rise oe _He astonished this man by telling him who lis kidnapers were, and promised to pay him ene he secured evidence against the brokers to war- rant their arrest. Be Bob gave the detectives such facts as he knew, | describing the house in Fordham where he been held a prisoner, and mentioning the road- house at which Norris and Beaver had stopped im their automobile. P cc While Bob was out a dozen brokers dropped in to congratulate him over his escape, and Dan Sr their verbal messages, and repeated them: to his employer when he returned. ~ ; pee A good many of the traders camein during the — day to see Bob and learn any additional facts that — the newspapers had not reported. ee d He made more friends that day among the traders than’ during all the previous time he had 3 been in Wall Street. : heck _ That afternoon he met both Norris and Beaver — in front of the Exchange, and they stopped him — OE PHCNT UN LURES WN Been ee a 3 “. OC Tyee ee, ine
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FIGHTING THE and told him they were glad to hear that he had got out of his trouble all right. Beaver asked him carelessly if he had any sus- picion who was at the bottom of the business. In order to throw them off Bob said he guessed he must have been the victim of an organized gang of kidnapers. f Beaver eagerly agreed with him, and asked him if the police were on the case. + “T suppose they are,” replied Bob; “but it’s hard to tell what they will do.” Norris and Beaver both walked away looking much relieved. Next morning Bob started to look into the trac- ‘tion company deal that Norris, Beaver and their _ friends were interested in. He found out that the - road was known as the White Plains & Barkeley Trolley Company. It was fifteen miles long and was barely meeting its fixed charges, after pay- ing its operating expenses, ‘The Westchester Traction Company had made an offer to take it over and make it a part of its system, but the offer had not been accepted, chief- ly because the widow of the ex-president objected to parting with her large block of stock at the low price the Westchester people made a part of the agreement. ~All that Bob could learn of the lady was that her name was Mrs. Martha Williams, and that her home-was at White Plaints. The little ‘specu- ~ Jatér made a canvass of all the brokers likely to have any of the stock, but all he could find was 100 shares, which he bought at the market, 20, or _ ten points lower than it was usually quoted. “The Norris crowd seem to ‘have the available stock pretty well cornered,” thought Bob. “At that rate the rise in price may come at any mo- ment now. They have got the value of the shares - down to bedrock, and are likely to make a good thing out of the deal if it goes through all_right. I wonder if there is any way of reaching the ex- president’s widow by cable message. If I could get control of her stock before the boom sets in I’d be in a position to make the fur fly about the ears of Norris and his bunch.” ae Bob called at the company’s office in White - Plains. He saw the secretary in his office and asked him if he knew the foreign address of Mrs. illiams.. ; : -_*J do not,” replied the official; “but if you call on her lawyer, Reginald Ball, at 115 Broadway, - Manhattan; he may be able to accommodate you.” _. That afternoon Bob called on her lawyer. “Aye you a personal friend of Mrs. Williams?” asked the legal gentleman. “No, sir, I am not.” “Well, if it is.a matter of business you wish to bring to her attention you can transact it with me. I am authorized to look after her interests.” - Bob then told him that he wanted to find out if the lady’s interest in the White Plains & Berkeley ~ Trolly Company could be purchased. - “Whom do you represent?” asked the lawyer. “Myself,” replied Bob. ; ‘The lawyer looked greatly surprised. “Mrs. Williams’s interest in the road has been ‘considered worth a million. It cost her husband $1,200,000.” : Tt is not worth a million to-day. She has _ 80,000 shares, I understand?” - The lawyer nodded. MONEY KINGS 15 “At the prevailing price on the market only worth $600,000.” 3 “Oh, the slump is only temporary.” “Think so, eh? You don’t believe, then, that the Westchester Traction Company is at the bot- tom of the slump in order to force the sale of the road?” Bob knew, of course, that the Westchester road had nothing to do with the present drop in the price of the W. P.. & B. shares, but he threw out the hint to see how the lawyer would take it. Mr. Ball looked a bit startled. _Not being a Wali Street man he had not thought of such a contin- gency, and believed that the drop in price was solely due to the poor financial showing the road was making. F “Have you heard anything to that effect?” he asked. ; “J must decline to say whether I have or not. I stand willing to pay $600,000 in cash for Mrs. Williams’ 30,000 shares. If you are authorized to do business for her I submit the offer to you. But I must have an immediate answer, yes or no.” “Tt would be impossible for me to sell that stock without submitting your offer to the lady her- self,” replied the lawyer. “It represents the largest part of her fortune. I don’t believe she’d consent to part with it at that figure, though she might accept 25.” “Well, I'll tell you what you can do. Cable her how the land lies and say that I will go as high as 22; but that’s my limit. There’s my card. Let me know as soon as you get her answer. Recol- lect, however, that my bid is contingent on cir- cumstances. Ill pay 22 now. An hour from now, or to-morrow morning, it might be too late for me. to carry it through. Therefore, it will be neces- sary for you to lose no time if you think there is a chance of the lady selling at 22.” “T will hardly be able to get a reply to you before the morning,” replied Mr. Ball, “Send it, anyway,” answered Bob, rising to go. Before sending his cable the lawyer looked up the closing price of the stock and found that it was 19 5-8. He lost no time in filing his message for transmission. At a quarter past ten next morning Bob received a note from the lawyer asking him to call at his office. After looking up the opening prices of the market the little speculator found that the trac- tion stock was quoted at 19%. On reaching Mr. Ball’s office the lawyer told him that his offer was accepted. “The price has gone down half a point since I made my offer,” replied Bob. “Then T suppose I am to understand that you withdraw it?” “No. I will stick to it If you will bring the certificates to my office in an hour I will have the money ready for you. Just draw up an agree- ment to that effect and sign it, please. I wish it to be understood from a legal point of view that I have bought the shares, contingent upon full payment of $660,000 in one hour.” Mr. Ball drew up and signed the paper, which that is ~ he handed to Bob. “T will be at your office for the money within the hour,” he said. : “All right,” replied Bob, “I’ll expect you.” — One hour later the little speculator had the certificates in his safe, and the lawyer had the _ purchase price in his pocket. Fifteen minutes . —
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- $ cat 88.” 16. FIGHTING THE after the deal had been fully consummated, and while Mr. Ball was on his way back to his office Mr. Norris went on the floor of the Exchange and began bidding up the price of White Plains & Berkeley Trolley Company stock. = CHAPTER XI.—The Bursting of a Boom. Bob soon saw that the traction shares were advancing in price. “T guess the boom is on at last,” he thought. He put on his hat and went over the the gal- Jery of the Exchange where he stayed until one o’clock, by which time W. P. & B. traction had gone back to 30, and was attracting the atten- tion of the brokers. _ “Well, I’m $30,000 ahead at this point,” said Bob to himself as he went to lunch. He did not return to the Exchange, but kept an eye on the ticker in hig office. It closed that day at 85. The stock that Bob had purchased was in six certificates of 5,000 shares each, and next morning he put them in his pocket and called on his brokers, Daly & Co. “Myr. Daly,” he said, “I have here 30,000 shares of W. P. & B. traction. I want you to go upon the floor of the Exchange and unload them in blocks of 5,000.’ Then he explained the situation to the broker. “The Norris crowd will hardly be able to take in allthis stock,” he said. “Offer the stock to Norris, one certificate at a time. If he should re- fuse to take any of it dump it on the market and break the price. I’m going to spoil that boom at any cost.” The broker put on his hat and went over to the Exchange while Bob mounted to the, gallery to watch events. Norris wasestill booming the stock with no offerings, and he and his bunch felt that their position was pretty solid. His purpose was to drive it up to its old price of 40 and then un- Joad at a big profit. Jery he saw Norris at the pole shouting: “Thirty-eight for any part of 5,000.” Broker Daly stepped up and accepted his bid to his secret consternation. : Norris was obliged to buy and memorandums assed between them. The 5,000 shares cost him 90,000. He didn’t feel like asking for any more stock, and went over to Beaver to consult about unloading on the quiet. Daly followed him in a few minutes. @ “T’ve 5,000 more,” he said. “Do you want it?” The perspiration came out on Norris’s face. He knew if he didn’t take it in that Daly would offer it on the open market, so he nodded and the deal was made, costing him and his associates an- other $190,000. Daly walked away. In five minutes he sent his floor representative to Norris with an offer of - 5,000 more. Norris gasped. “How much more have you got?” he asked. “That’s all I have.” } “T’ll take it,” replied Norris, and the memo- randums were exchanged between them. “Good heavens, Norris!” eried Beaver. “Who is letting out this stock?” “Daly & Co. I’ve had to take in 15,000 shares When Bob reached the gal-. MONEY KINGS “That’s $570,000. We'll go to the wall if any more comes out.” : “No, no; we must take it in or we'll be ruined.” “How are we going to pay for it?” “We must raise the money somehow.” At this moment up stepped Daly again. : “T can let you have another 5,000,” he said. “If you don’t want it I’ll throw it on the——” “No, no—I’ll take it,” gasped Norris, as pale as a ghost, for he felt the fortunes of his little syndicate tottering to ruin. : “All right,” and the deal was made.. “Want any more?” asked Daly. “Good Lord! Have you more? taken in ud “ve got another 5,000. ‘Want it?” Tll be back “Wait till I can see my associates. in ten minutes.” : “Tl wait fifteen. If you’re not back I’ll offer it on the market,” answered Daly coolly. Norris rushed off like a madman. He held a consultation with Beaver and another of his — bunch. They did not know what to do. Their re- sources were completely exhausted, for Norris had taken in 20,000 shares for which the syndi- cate was bound to pay $760,000. The Norris crowd had previously secured 80,000 at prices varying from 28 down to 20, at an outlay of about — $600,000. They had gone in on the deal with a capital of a million, which they calculated would be more than sufficient to put the little corner through. That left them $260,000 shy which they would have to raise among themselves. They could do it, but that was all. How, then, could they take in this additional 5,000 at 38? If they didn’t take it the market price would be broken and all their arrangements upset. The boom would go to smash, and they would have to sacri- fice what they had been obliged to take from Daly. The possible loss appalled them. “Tf it’s all he has left take it,” said Beaver des- perately. “We'll try and unload enough today to settle up. At the best this boom is a failure.” “This must be Mrs. Williams’ stock that has come out,” said the other man. “We figured that it wouldn’t be offered because the lady is in Hu- rope.” “Tf it’s her stock then we’ll have to take in ~ 10,000 more or go to the wall,” said Norris with a white face. “How can we do it?” ee “We can’t! We’re ruined!” cried Beaver, shak- ing like an aspen leaf, for he was thoroughly un- nerved by the desperate’ predicament the bunch was in. ; “Time is up,” said Norris with quivering face. — “T’ll go back and take the 5,000. If there’s more — thrown at me J’ll have to throw up my hands, for I see our finish.” =i) j So Norris took in the 5,000, and breathed easier. when Daly walked off without offering any more. The syndicate were now indebted to Bob Yorke, through his broker, in the amount of $950,00. Very little profit would now be left to the Nor-_ ris bunch if they could carry the boom through successfully. : Sin oe They had 55,000 shares that they must unload — around 40 to give them a profit of half a million, — but there was small chance that they would be able to sell all that at such a high price. : The best they could expect to do with every- thing in their favor was to come out even, or at a loss of perhaps $100,000 : Daves I’ve already e
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7) eek, feed OOS FIGHTING THE As no more stock was offered Norris, the three members of the syndicate began to unload with great caution. They had sold 2,000 shares when Daly’s repre- sentative appeared with the last block of 5,000, which he offered to Norris at 40. That was the final straw and the broker threw up his hands in despair. Then Daly’s man threw it on the market in a bunch and it immediately precipitated a slump. Inside of ten minutes W. P. & B. traction was down to 80 and still falling. Norris, white as a sheet, and followed by Beaver and their other associate, hurried out of the Ex- change. : They knew that they were practically ruined. Bob, who had witnessed their overthrow from the gallery with supreme satisfaction, followed them and*met them on the sidewalk. “How are things, gentlemen?” he asked them with a grin. “I’ve just made about $300,000 out of W. P. & Be traction. I unloaded through my broker 30,000 shares before the slump, the last 5,000 on the market, and I don’t know how I stand on that.” ~ “You’re a liar!” roared Norris. “That was Mrs. Williams’ stock.” “Tt was until yesterday, but I bought it at 22, and got 38 from somebody for five-sixths of it. It "was the last 5,000 that broke the camel’s back. I guess somebody is out of money.” 5 The three brokers glared fiercely at the little speculator. : 2 His triumphant and satisfied look confirmed his statement-and maddened Norris. With a howl like that of a wild beast he sprang at the boy, caught him by the throat and bore him to the ground. CHAPTER XII.—After the Slump. ‘Broad Street was crowded with brokers, mes- senger boys, and other pedestrians at the time, and Broker Norris’ vicious attack on Bob could not fail to attract instant attention and cause considerable excitement. The head. of the bursted syndicate was nearly crazy over his personal losses, and when the boy let out the truth—that ®3t was he’ who had-dumped all those shares of W. P. & B. on the syndicate—he lost his head and attacked him as we have seen. Beaver and his associate jumped forward to separate Norris from the young speculator, but the frenzied trader had such a grip on the boy’s throat that it was as much as they could do to get the. pair apart. Bob was nearly black in the face from the choking he had received, and he fell half un- ‘conscious to the sidewalk. As a crowd began to collect, Beaver, seeing how serious matters looked for his friend Norris, called on the trader to help him carry Bob into a neighboring cafe. Part of the crowd fol- ‘Towed them, but gradually dispersed after the swinging door of the car closed behind the prin- cipals in the trouble. Beaver asked the bar- keeper for a part of a glass of good brandy,/and he poured this down Bob’s throat, reviving the ‘boy at once. “How do you feel now, Yorke?” asked Beaver. “Better; but I want to say right here that I’m I MONEY KINGS 17 going to make Mr. Norris sweat for attacking me in such a savage manner.” “I wouldn’t be hard on him if I were you,, Yorke. Norris has suffered a big financial loss in the slump that you say you brought about. In fact, myself and the other members of the pool | are on the verge of ruin over the deal. You came along and began crowing about your success. That angered Norris so that he lost his head. He’ll! apologize as soon as he recovers his usual state | of mind.” | “Well, he came near killing me. I believe he | would have done so if it hadn’t been for you and your companion. A man who hasn’t any better control of himself at his age ought to have the riot act read-to him by a magistrate,” replied Bob indignantly. “T don’t blame you for feeling sore, Yorke; but: remember, Norris was provoked beyond@ his power of endurance,” said Beaver. “If you have Norris arrested for the assault it won’t do you! any particular good, outside of the satisfaction you might feel in getting back at him. At the most he’d get off with a moderate fine.” “Mr. Norris may be a gentleman in the eyes of the world, but in my eyes he’s nothing more or less than a brute,” said Bob. “This isn’t the first , trouble I’ve experienced at his hands. He seems! to have it in for me over that option business. : But I’m not going to let him ride rough-shod« over me, just the same.” ' | “Have a drink of whisky and it will brace you | up,” said Beaver. “No,” replied Bob. “I never drink whisky.” “You'll take it-as a kind of tonic, won’t you?” | “J don’t need a tonic. I’m feeling all right, ex-' cept that my throat is sore where Norris’ fingers clutched my windpipe.” ; “Look here, Yorke. You said that you bought Mrs. Williams’ 30,000 shares of W. P. & B. eS- | terday, and unloaded them on us through Daly & Co., thus bringing about the crash and putting» a dozen of us in the soup.” st “T bought the stock, yes, and I told Mr. Daly to} sell it at the top of the market, and he did it. What of it? It’s business to buy low and sell high, isn’t it?” 3 ‘ “How came you to buy so much of that stock?” “T don’t think it necessary for me to explain my actions to outsiders, Mr. Beaver. If I asked you hae a question you would consider me imperti- nent.’ “You must have learned in some way that Nor- ris was at the head of a movement to corner the stock and you bought that amount of shares to break up the corner if you could.” “Isn’t_ that .part of the Wall Street game of chance?” “Well, you’ve put Norris into a bad financial . hole, and I don’t know where I and the rest of the members of the syndicate are going to come | out unless you are easy with us. Norris took in 25,000 shares of your stock at 8%, that puts us| in debt to you to the amount of $925,000. W. have 30,000 more shares for which we paid about! $600,000. If you give us time we can settle with ou, for the stock we hold is easily worth a mil- ion and a half.” ; “It is if you can get 30 for it; but you'll find. | es that the boom and slump have hurt the standing, — ; of W. P. & B. in the market. If it was a solid road matters would be different; but the line is| * ry lint’
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18 Sn financial difficulties, and I doubt if you’ll be able to get over 20 for such a large lot as you hold. The Westchester Traction Company only offered 17 to take over the whole road, and the refusal of Mrs. Williams to sell at that figure blocked any action in the matter. The shares cost her husband originally 40 when the road was built.” “And you paid her 20 or 19 38-4, eh?” said Beaver. “No, I paid her more than that.” «You say you bought the stock yesterday?” sues?! “The market price was 19 3-4 yesterday.” . “She wouldn’t have sold at that price under any consideration.” “Then you bought the stock on purpose to do Norris and the rest of us up?” “T@bought the stock because I knew a boom “was under way, and intended to unload at the highest price I could get. That’s business.” eHow did you learn that a syndicate had been formed to corner the shares?” “That’s one of my business secrets.” “Are you going to give us a chance to pull ut ?”” “Pll take the 55,000 shares off your hands at 20. That will cancel your debt to me and give you $175,000 over. You can submit that offer to Mr. Norris.” “That will leave us half a million loser.” *T can’t help that.” “Tf you will give us time we'll be able to sell + 25, at any rate, which will reduce our loss one- alf.” e - “How much time do you want “Fifteen days.” “How rauch eash will you pay on account, and what security do you offer for the balance?” “Say $425,000. That will leave a balance of half a million. We'll put up 30,000 shares of W. P. & B., with the understanding that we have the privilege of taking it up as we dispose of it.” “T’]] consider your offer and let you know after T’ve seen my broker and find out exactly how I stand in the deal.” That closed the interview and Bob left the cafe and called on Mr. Daly. He found that Daly had -sold the last 5,000 shares in 1,000 sections at an average price of 28. Altogether Bob’s profits amounted to $400,000 on- the 30,000 shares. He told his broker about the offer Beaver had made ‘on behalf of the bursted syndicate, and said he had decided to give the Norris crowd a chance to crawl out of their hole if they could do so. “T’m not doing this on account of any sympathy I have for either Norris or Beaver. They de- serve none from me, especially Norris, who, in addition to the other injuries he has done me, at- tacked me in front of the Exchange a little while ago and nearly choked me to death. No, I’m giv- ing the syndicate a chance in order to let up on the other men composing it, who have never in- jured me to my knowledge, and against whom I have no hard feelings.” ; So that afternoon Bob sent a message to Beaver ‘by Dan notifying him that he would accept the informal offer made by the broker in the cafe, and that the syndicate could arrange the matter with Mr. Daly. Next day Daly sent word that Narris, acting for the syndicate, had paid over 9” to iiss, the sum of $425,000, and given him his FIGHTING THE MONEY KINGS note for the balance, depositing 30,000 shares of W. P. & B. stock as security for same. The mar- ket price of the stock was then 24 5-8.- The syndi- cate then proceeded to sell their holdings a little at a time. It took Norris and Beaver a week to dispose of 25,000 shares at an average of 24. With the greater part of the money thus obtained they paid their note and took up the 30,000 shares left with Daly & Co. as security. They then held on to that stock hoping that W. P. & B. might go back to 30, and thus let them out abcut eyen, or with a small loss. It did not go back, but on the contrary gradually went down to 20. Bob watched it every day on the ticker, for he was curious to learn how. the members of the late syndicate were likely to come out of their hobble. He wondered if the Westchester Traction Company had taken a hand in keeping the price of the independent road down. The impression prevailed in Wall Street that the big company expected to gobble up the small road at its own price. Bob believed that, too, and ‘he guessed the’ Westchester Company would win out, for it was franchten by some of the money kings of Wall treet. CHAPTER XIII.—Bob Begins His Fight with the Money Kings. It was about this time that the detective Bob ~ had put on the kidnaping case made his final. re- port. The sleuth had secured enough evidence against the two brokers to warrant their arrest. The most conclusive testimony was the sworn statement of their confederate, whom the detec- tive had finally hunted down and put through the third degree. Bob and the sleuth appeared be- fore a magistrate, submitted the evidence to his inspection, and the boy asked for a warrant for the arrest of Norris and Beaver. The magistrate “issued it, and a detective from headquarters was. delegated to make the arrests. Broker Norris was taken into custody as he was leaving his office for home, and Beaver was later on pinched at his apartments. : Both were taken to the Tombs. They were paralyzed when they understood why they had been arrested. Norris sent at once for a well- ,— known lawyer in order to arrange for bail for himself and his friend Beaver. The reporters got the news in time for insertion in the late editions of the evening papers, and the morning papers had the story in full. “All Wall Street knew about the arrest of Brokers: Norris and Beaver on the charge of abducting the little speculator. The kidnaping incident had been forgotten, but the arrest of the two traders brought all the particu- lars to tlie fore again. Norris and Beaver waived examination and were held under bail to await the action of the Grand Jury. Subsequently the Grand Jury re- turned an indictment against them, under which they were tried and, in spite of the efforts of eminent counsel, were convicted. A great deal of pressure was brought to bear on Bob to let up ~ on the brokers, but he wouldn’t listen to any com- promise, and so the men had to take their medi-— = cine, which was five years each in State prison. — Bob in the meantime had not been idle, even if he was worth $1,800,000. He had taken an ine
Page 21
WPA ais ys Mp reees Tey ley ay eon e a _ FIGHTING THE “terest in the fate of the W. P. & B. trolley line, which seemed destined to fall into the hands of the Westchester Traction Company. He called on the president of the road and had a long talk with him. Then a directors’ meeting was called to consider what could be done to save the independent line. Bob was present at the meeting and listened to all the plans proposed. A hundred thousand shares of the stock had origi- nally been issued at 40, the par value being 50. All this and another million had been used up in building and equipping the line for business. Mrs. Williams had stuck by the road with her $0,000 shares, and that gave the insiders a clear control of the company. When Bob bought her shares and unloaded them on the Norris crowd the people in control of the road became in the minority, and the Westchtster Company, by buy- ing up the stock on the market, could have taken things in their own hands. : The magnates at the head of that company were in no hurry to buy the stock for 24, or even when it dropped to 20, as they foresaw that it would probably go to 15, for nobody but the in- siders seemed to want it, and they could not af- ford to buy it in. As soon as it got to that point they had brokers ready to step in and gobble it up. These brokers were also watching to see that no concerted move was made by anyone else to buy it. Bob, however, having made up his mind to help save the road.if he could, played a march on them. Through a well-known brokerage house he bought the 30,000 shares held by the Norris crowd at 19% Then he made a quiet canvass of the Street and secured 20,000 more at around the same price. He had the original 100 shares he ‘had bought when he started to do up the syndi- eate, which gave him the individual control of the road, Sak eouatinse the 35,000 shares held by e president and directors. ; oe ’ That left only 14,900 shares on the market, a Het that the magnates of the Westchester cor- poration did not wake up to till it was too late. But they did not give up the idea of securing the independent road for all that. They commenced an attack on the stock in the market and drove it down to 15. They did this by causing the publica- tion of rumors against the road in the Wall Street = ers, and also in the daily press. Bob who was oe virtually the controlling figure in the W. P. & B. Trolley Company, found that he had a big fight with several money kings on his hands. - Half of his money, nearly a million, was tied up in the stock of the independent line, and at the ‘pheasant market price of its stock he was $200,000 bad. that fact, however, didn’t worry him. He was determined that the independent line should not into the maw of the opposition. The West- Paes people pought up the 14,900 shares as the price went down. But they found that that was all they could get. Then they began tampering & with the insiders by offering them a price two and th oints above the market. They secured ee to give them 25,000 shares altogether, but that was as far as they could get. Finding them- vs selves blocked they tackled Bob, and offered him 18 for his holdings. “T paid more than that for what I have,” he told their representative. _ “That’s where you were a fool. The road as ch it stands is practically bankrupt, The only way * all,” chuckled one trader. 19 MONEY KINGS it can be built up again is for the Westchester line to take it into its system.” “Well, the Westchester road can’t nothing.” “We are offering you 18.” “The stock is worth 30.” 2 “Ts it?” laughed the emissary. “It’s being sold on the market at 15.” “Those are wash sales,” replied Bob. “Nonsense!” replied the other. “No nonsense about it. I and my associates hold 75,000 shares. None of this-is being offered on the market. The Westchester people own the other 25,000 shares. They are not really selling any of it. Therefore these sales to which you al- ludeware simply fake ones, since no real stock passes from hand to hand. You see I know one or two things about the situation.” “T see you do,” replied his visitor dryly, for he knew that the boy had stated nothing but what was true. “Wel, suppose we offered you 20 for your shares?” “You couldn’t get them.” 5 “Look here, young man, you are as yet merely a tyro in Wall Street financial schemes. If you per- sist in fighting the money kings back of the op- position you are bound to regret it. They have millions to use against you.” “That’s true, but I don’t see how theif millions are going to win as long as our road pays its fixed charges and running expenses,” replied Bob. “How long will you be able to do it? You are losing traffic every day. Your road is going to the dogs, owing to poor rolling stock that you arc unable to replace with new.” “Our rolling stock is all right. We are not losing traffic every day. We have made more money during the last three months than for the same period last year. Furthermore, I am in the fight to stay, and I may add that I am a long way from being broke yet. When the West- chester people are prepared to pay 80 for. 75,000. shares of stock we will consider their offer. That’s all the answer I can give you today.”, That ended the interview and the representa- tive of the money kings took his departure, satis- fied that Bob Yorke, the new president of the White Plains & Berkeley Trolley Company, was no easy proposition to bulldoze, and that he wag prepared to fight t6.the last ditch if necessary. get it for CHAPTER XIV.—Bob Puts Through Another Winning Deal. Of course the fact became known all thropgh the financial district that Bob Yorke, the little speculator, as he was facetiously called by many.” traders, was now in control of the White Plains ° & Berkeley Trolley-Company. The Street won- | dered who was at his back, for nobody believed he had money enough of his own to have bought the © stock for himself. The brokers also knew that he, ” or the man whom they believed was financing him, * had a big fight on his hands against the money ” kings that owned the Westchester Traction line, _ They laughed at the idea of a boy, even as smart ' as they admitted Bob to be, holding his own © against the monev kings. “Why, they’ll swallow him whole, shoes and \ ‘ ¥
Page 22
throw the road into a receiver’s hands. 26 _ “Sure they will,” laughed the man he was talk- ing to. ; “Still it is reported around today that he sent their representative away the other day with a flea in his ear.” : “So I heard; but what can he do against the opposition? They’ve got the stock down to 14, and can force it to nothing if they choose.” “That won’t do any good if the insiders can manage to hold on.” “What's the good of their holding on? They are not making .a cent on their invested capital, and it takes a whole lot of scratching to pay the expenses and charges. Should the road run be- hind so that they can’t meet the interest on the first mortgage bonds the bondholders will 2 eure s the Westchester money kings have bought up the bonds they’ll have no mercy the moment they find a legal excuse to get their hooks in.” Wall Street didn’t expect the fight that Bob ‘was making to hold the road on an independent basis would last long, or amount to much; but then Wall Street didn’t know Bob as well as it thought it did. The money kings opposed to Bob did not intend to be outwitted by a mere boy. In fact, they laughed long and loud at the bare idea ‘of getting a. set-back from a youth of his years, forgetting that he had really drawn first blood in the fight when he managed to capture the 50,- 000 shares that they might have had themselves if they had been willing to pay the same price he did. They saw the plum ripening on the tree, as it were, and they made the mistake of waiting for _it to drop into their hands of its own accord, in- stead of reaching up and plucking it. The first round, therefore, had ended in Bob’s favor, the second one was now on. The only thing the Westchester magnates could do was to bide their time. They found that the beating down of the stock. was not likely to produce any results, as it was all held by themselves. and Bob and his crowd —and both intended to hold on to it. They fig- ured that having acquired the majority of the xoad’s bonds they were in the position to jump on the independent line the moment it defaulted in the interest payments. Bob knew that fact well, and he did not intend that the road hould default as long as he and his associates had the money to make good any differ- ence lacking. The little speculator had been so much occupied with the fortunes of the trolley line in which he was identified to the extent of nearly a million that he hadn’t given his atten- tion to any private deal for many weeks. He still had nearly $900,000 stowed away in his safe deposit box doing nothing. Several times he thought of advertising the fact that he had money to loan on gilt-edged security, but he did not. _ Shortly after the interview he had with the rep- resentative of the Westchester Traction. money kings he discovered that a clique of moneyed men had formed themselves into a syndicate for the ‘purpose of cornering and booming H. & O. shares. As soon as he was sure of his ground the little speculator called on Mr. Daly, his broker, and told him to buy any part of 30,000 shares of H..& O. on margin for his account. He put up $300,000 security and the broker started out to fill his order. It took Daly seyeral days to get the stock, as the syndicate’s brokers were on a ” FIGHTING THE MONEY KINGS quiet hunt after it, too. But he finally secured the last of the shares at an average price of 80, and then notified Bob that he held them subject to his order. In a day or so the price jumped to 82. By that time the syndicate had captured about all the stock on the market except the 30,- 000 held by Bob. At a meeting of the members of the pool the said shares formed the main topic of consideration. They wondered who was hold- ing them, and how they could get them. “They may be held by some trust company as an investment,” said one of the pool. “In that case they won’t come out to bother us.” “But suppose they are in poossession of some big speculator—what then?” asked the gentleman who was managing the deal. “They’ll be thrown at us about the time we’re getting ready to un- load, and we’ll have to take them in in order to hold the price.” “We'd better start a bear movement against H. & O. and try to frighten the person who holds them into selling,” suggested another. “Just what I was going to propose,” replied the leader. “But I don’t believe any one man has~ $2,400,000 tied up in the stock. More likely they are held by some big estate or bank, and they will not be thrown on the market. However, T’ll instruct out brokers to begin a raid on the stock tomorrow and see what happens.” So next day H. & O. began to slump badly, and Bob, to save his stock, had to put up another $300,000 in margin, as the price dropped to 70 and then to 68. It recovered to 71 that afternoon, but next day it was raided again, and dropped so close to 60 that Bob had to put up another $300,000 margin. In order to do this he had to hypothecate $60,000 worth of his W. P. & B. stock to make up the $40,000 he was short.. The syn-— dicate finding that a drop of 19 points did not shake out any of the 30,000 shares, concluded that they could safely go ahead.. So the price of H. & O. began to rise again. When it reached 70 Bob recovered a part of his margin and took his trol- ley stock out of pledge. A few days later it was back at-80, the price he paid for it, and he got back another $300,000 of his margin. The brokers in the employ of the syndicate kept on bidding higher and higher for the stock which they did not expect would’ be offered, and as Bob was not yet ready to unload, very few shares came to the surface. Other brokers also began bidding for it when they saw what seemed to be a boom in sight, and so the price mounted to 90. From 90 to 100 was but a step under the prevailing conditions, and it closed — on Saturday noon at 101. Bob now got ready to let some of his stock out. he let 10,000 go at an average price of 102. The syndicate didn’t have to touch a share,'as there __ were too many hungry traders looking for it. - ; ge te seca! Bob cad ph fa in. small ots, an ey were snapped up like wil yy different brokers at 104. G ori he let out 10,000 moré in odd lots at different — times, and they went the way of the others at 106. The syndicate had also started in to unload, and~ as: A the stock exchanged hands in large quantities. Foxy brokers, trading in the boom, noticed this and promptly sold out their holdings so as to be out of danger. Bob also got rid of his last 5,000 shares at 107. Figuring up his profits he found he had made a little over $700.000 on the deal. On Monday morning On Tuesday morning
Page 23
; FIGHTING THE He was now worth $1,568,000 in cash, and W. P. _& B. shares that had cost him $950,000, though they were worth $200,000 less on the market. Thus he was better equipped than ever for his ‘fight with the money kings of the big traction road. - CHAPTER XV.—The Little Speculator Beats the Money Kings at Their Own Game. Bob learned one day that emissaries of the Westchester Traction Company were tampering with his motormen and trying to foment a strike among them, so as to hurt the road. He sent sev~ - eral Pinkerton detectives to the ground and three of the men were arrested. They were put through a kind of third degree and admitted that they were employed by the Westchester people to make trouble. _Bob called on the president of the traction company, and protested against such un- fair tactics. The president denied that his com- pany was at the bottom of any such thing. Then Bob produced the sworn statements of the pris- oners and told the president that if they tried + any more dodges of that kind on his line there would be trouble. He ‘gave copies of the documents to the press and statements from his own motormen, making a pretty bad showing for the Westchester Com- - pany. They didn’t appear, however, as the astute editors sent proofs of the articles to the general superintendent of the Westchester Company and the papers were well paid to suppress the infor- mation. When Bob found that the story did not appear he called on the editors to know the reason why. They alleged that it was of a libelous na- ture and that they did not dare print it. ’ “All right,” replied Bob. “Ill see that it is printed.” x He issued a complete statement in a pamphlet and circulated it throughout the financial dis- ‘trict, and it created something of a sensation. Bob received a letter from a prominent firm of lawyers threatening to sue the W. P. & B. line for heavy damages unless a public retraction was made. The little speculator returned word to “go ahead and sue.” He issued another pamphlet and _ printed the lawyer’s letter in bold type, giving the Wye ctehonter Company a hard knock. A suit was yepun and Bob hired a law firm to defend the -~ company. A law fight was likely to be a long- drawn-out matter, as the case could not get on the ealendar for some time and would probably take a year or two of waiting before it could come to trial. Then all sorts of technical excuses were likely to delay it another year. - -Whichever side lost then would be sure to carry the case to a higher court, so, taking it altogether, it would be a bonanza for the opposing lawyer’. The money magnates of the Westchester Traction line didn’t like Bob’s fighting spirit for a cent. _- The result was they decided to beat him by sheer - foree of money if they could. They got around the boy’s associates and by offering a high price : th their shares succeeded in buying them all out. a s Fi H : ‘hey expected to get a clear control of the trolley Ine that way and freeze the little fighting specu- _ jator out. To their disgust they found that Bob had by 100 shares a majority of the stock and a MONEY KINGS 21 “ that they couldn’t force him out. At the new election he put in a majority of the board of direc- tors and had himself re-elected president and gen- eral manager. The news circulated all through Wall Street that the little speculator had beaten the money kings in their fight for control of the road, and they regarded the feat as a remarkable exhibition of pluck, foresight and energy. The consequence was that the Street took its hat off to Bob. and reckoned him as an expanding power in the money realm. The fight went on, but there was fresh interest in it now. It was Bob against the money kings, and there were many now willing to, bet that the little speculator , would come out on top, for money alone isn’t everything in this world. Bob, you may well be-, lieve, wasn’t asleep at any stage of the game. He was watching the Westchester money mag- nates like a hawk. They had no idea that he kept such a close surveillance on their actions, and supposed that all his thoughts were centered in the trolley line. Bob had a dozen smart boys shadowing the men wherever they went, either down in Wall Street or at home. He paid them princely wages, and they were faithful to him from the ground floor up. these money kings had decided to work a little game on the public. Their plan was to depress the price of their own road so as to force out a lot of people who had purchased the stock at high prices. When the price got as low as they could put it they intended to buy in the stock, put up the price again, and then sell it over again at a high figure as before. It was simply one of the tricks constantly practiced by astute financiers in Wall Street in which the ousiders get bitten. _ Westchester Traction was in demand and go-. ing at 116. Bob at once gave orders to his broker to sell 20,000 shares of W. T. for him. This was what is called a short sale, for Bob was selling something he didn’t. have, and would have to buy in order to deliver at the right time. Daly sold the stock at 115, and his offer was greedily snapped up. That afternoon the. broker of the magnates began a raid on Westchester. and by tricks known to the initiated forced it down to 110. At that price Bob bought 20,000 and deliy- ered it at 115, making $100,000. Next day he or-’ dered Daly to sell anywhere from 10,000 to 30,- 000 according as the market went. The magnates’ brokers were selling, too. Then all the brokers got to selling, and a small panic ensued. Daly had managed to put out sales up to 2,000 at an average of 107. When the traction stock got down to 95, and seemed about to re- cover, Bob began to buy in again, and secured his 20,000 shares for delivery at that figure, . thus clearing $240,000 more. Next day he kept on buying Westchester Traction, his broker taking it in as fast as it was offered. The money kings tried to offset him by selling largely, but Daly bought all they offered, getting some of it as low , as 90. The. magnates wondered who could be buying in the shares. They figured that it must be some multi-millionaire speculator, or a big syndicate. Bob, however, was buying on margin, and as fast as the stock was bought. Daly hypothecated it with his bank. In this way Bob secured 70,000 In this way one day Bob learned that - shares of the stock of the rival road, and the - =: magnates found that their scheme was*being de-
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H 22 FIGHTING THE ' feated—that somebody else and not themselves would make big profits when Westchester’ Trac- tion stock recovered, which it was bound to do, as it was gilt-edged. Bob got 10,000 shares for 90; and 20,000 each at 92, 93 and 95. Daly kept on offering to buy and the price went up to 100, the magnates, not daring to sell any more. In an- other week it was back to 115, and Bob began to unload quietly. He had bought two more lots of 5,000 at 98 and 100, and 10,000 more at 105. In all he had nearly a million up on margin when he began to sell. He got rid of all his holdings at 115 and made the big profit of $1,800,000, raising his cash capital to - $8,700,000. Then he staggered the money kings by going to the president of the Westchester Traction Company and offering to buy out the 49,900 shares of W. P. & B. Trolley Company for 80, and take the million dollars’ worth of the com- pany’s bonds off their hands at the market price. The president refused to make the deal as a mat- ter of course, but the offer gave the magnates a terrible shock. They held a special meeting to consider the situation. Soe! fe. “It is clear that boy has unlimited backing,” said the president. “How he has managed to in- terest capital in that bankrupt road gets me, but he has done it. He is certainly a hummer. - That poy will run Wall Street one of these days, mark my words. No ordinary boy, or man, for that matter, could beat us the way we have been beaten in our attempt to get hold of that inde- pendeht line. The best thing we can do, gentle- men, is to call the fight off and try to compro- “mise. We need the W. P. &.B. line in our sys- tem. Let us take this young speculator in with us. He is a wonder, and will be a power on our side as he is at present against us.” : The president’s words created a sensation at the meeting. It led to a long and heated discus- sion. The other money kings did not want to sur- render to a boy. It was ridiculous, they claimed. “Well, what are we going to do about it, gen- tlemen?” asked the resident. ; % “Keep up the fight!” roared a stout director with a red face. ; “T’d rather lose a million than give in,” chimed in*another big man, violently pounding the table. “So would I,” said a third. And a fourth said the same. The president, who seemed to have a clearer view of the case than the others, was inclined to compromise, but the question being put to vote the opposition car- ried it, and so the fight was not called off. CHAPTER XVI.—The Little Speculator Wins ( the Fight and a Wife as Well. Bob’s capital of three and three-quarter mil- elions in ready cash gave him a tremendous fight- Bis ing power in the financral world. It was backed up, too, by nerve and aggressiveness. Hé was - out to win, and didn’t recognize such a word as “fail” in the dictionary. He was determined to force -the magnates of the Westchester Traction Company to give up the fight and buy his inter- est at a figure he considered it to be worth. -He “oxdered his broker to go into the market and bid ap the price of the W. P. & B. Trolley line by bee ce ee ~ > MONEY KINGS* offering up to 30 for it.. He did not believe he would secure a share, but he would restore the value of the stock to what he considered the proper point. Daly followed instructions, and without ‘oppo- sition the stock went to 80. The opposition then took a hand at the same game. Their brokers bid the price to 40, thinking to induce the little speculator to sell. It was a trap, pure and sim- ple. If Bob let out any stock under the tempta- tion they would accept only enough to give their side the majority—101 shares would do that—and then they would have things in their own hands. - Of course they didn’t expect so small a number of shares would be offered; if any were offered at all, they figured that it might come out in 1,000 lots or so. Bob, however, easily saw through the dodge and made no move to offer a single share, even at 40, so the game failed and: the price went back to 30 again. The regular semi-annual interest on the first mortgage bonds having been duly met, the money kings were blocked for another six months, and the road continued to run under Bob’s per- sonal management. He loaned the company con- siderable money under a second bond issue to make needed repairs and to buy improved rolling stock. He also built an additional three miles of road to the town of Paisley, where building -oper- ations and a land boom were under way, and the traffic of the road was considerably increased. The money kings would have, stopped this move’ through politics, only the extension was provided for under the company’s charter, and it had long” since acquired the right of way. The more the - Westchester people saw of Bob’s methods the less they relished them. He was certainly a big thorn in their side. It was a bitter reflection fof them to realize that there was no legal way to shake him off, _The president of the traction line tried _ again to bring a compromise about, but the mag- nates wouldn’t have it. They hoped to win yet, : though they couldn’t see how they were going to | do it. Wall Street was getting so interested in this unique struggle that several big capitalists called on Bob and offered to stand in with him. — “Y’m much obliged to you, Mr. Pratt,” he told one of them, and his answer was ‘a: sample of what he said to the others, “but I don’t need any: z help. I have millions to call on if I should need them: I’ve the situation so well in hand that all * _ the money in Wall Street couldn’t beat me. [I hold a majority of the W. P. & B. stock, and no _ power on earth can make me part with a single __ share. As long as I hold this control the oppo- * sition can’t do a thing. If they keep this fight up _ a,surprise that'll take = long enough I may work in their breath away.” His words were eirculated through the Street and made a whole lot more supporters for the plucky little speculator. Men always admire grit and perseverance. He had the sympathy, publie and private, of three-quarters of the brokers and financiers. The W. P. & B, Trolley line rose in. the estimation of the Street, although its poor business shéwing was no secret. Men figured that with the powerful backing the road had ob- tained through Bob, together with the fact that a second bond issue had heen put through without — appealing to the public, the line was coming to the front. The result was that several outsiders trié to buy the stock at 82 and even higher, but they 5 ‘ OR
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jn stenography and typewriting. - than that, she had been making a - unaware. “You're the girl I want, Kittie Wil you FIGHTING THE eould not get a share. One day Bob noticed that S. & T. shares were steadily falling in the market. He could not account for that fact, as the road was a good one and was not reported as being in any difficulty. Bob watched it right along and finally became satisfied that some combination was depressing it for purposes of its own. The young speculator having so much money lying idle, he decided to buy S. & T. and see how he would come out. He began by telling Broker Daly to buy all he could get at the market. In three days Daly had secured 40,000 shares, all he could find, at 52. Three days later there was a tremendous bear raid made on the stock, but Bob didn’t care, for he had bought the shares outright, paying $2,000,000 for them, and still had a mil- lion and three-quarters in cash. The price went as low as 40, and Bob kept buy- ing in all that was offered. Thus the syndicate, which was selling short, had.to come up with 20,- 000 shares, for which the members had paid over 50, in order to keep its engagements. This was an unpleasant dose for the combine to swallow, causing a loss of nearly $300,000 right there. After that the stock went up, and at 60 Bob began to unload, selling 20,000 at about that price and clearing $150,000. The price.kept on up and at 70 Bob told his broker to sell out all his holdings quietly, so as not to disturb the market. So Daly went to the 8. & T. pole and began offering it. ' Tke syndicate was obliged to take it in to save themselves, and 20,000 shares went their way that day at a profit of $350,000 to the little speculator. Next day Daly offered the rest in 5,000 lots. The “syndicate took what the other brokers refused, but it staggered them. Bob was hardly out of it with $300,000 more profit before something alarmed the brokers, and the whole of them began throwing S. & T. on the market. Everybody seemed to have an idea that the price was going to tumble and rushed to save themselves. ‘The result was that, with hardly any buyers in sight, a panic set in and the.syndicate went to the wall with a crash. The price dropped ‘ten points in as many minutes, and pandemonium yeigned in the Exchange. Every member of the syndicate was hard hit, and dozens of others were ruined. The only person who had made money out of the deal was Bob, who added three-quarters of a million more to his already large capital. During all these busy weeks and months in which Bob had been piling up millions Kittie Clover had been building up a profitable business Even better reat inroad on the little speculator’s heart as well. Bob was keeping steady company with her, and what she wouldn’t do for him wasn’t worth mentioning. She knew that he was full of business, but had no idea what he was making. Nobody knew that he was a millionaire ‘several times over but his mother and sisters, from whom he had no secrets, put they were bound to secrecy. “Kittie,” said Bob one Sunday night, when _ they were alone in the little parlor of her humble - home, “I’m thinking of getting married.” - His words gave her a shock, for she thought he had another girl of whose existence she was She looked up in a startled way. ws 25 “T love you, Bob, with all my heart, and I wilf be your wife if you will have me.” —_ Then she took her in his arms and kissed hery and’ it is hardly necessary to say that they were very happy in their acknowledged love. A few weeks afterward Bob was sitting in his office when he was surprised to receive a visit from the president of the Westchester Traction Company. The magnate came with a proposition which he had worried out of the rest of the directors by persistent argument. Bob was to come into the traction trust with the W. P. & B. road. He was to continue president of the company, but was to act under the direction of the money kings. The stock was to be boomed to par, that is, 50, and the trust agreed to guarantee him 5 per cent. interest on his 50,100 shares at a valuation of $2,500,000. - If he preferred to get out the traction people would pay him 40, or $2,000,000, for his stock. Bob said he would take the offer under considera- tion. In either case it was a great victory for the little speculator. It was a practical acknowledg- ment on the part of the money kings that they were beaten to a standstill. In the end Bob re- ceived the first proposition and the deal was cir- culated through Wall Street. Then the truth be- came known that Bob had had no financial backer, - but had fought the opposition single-handed and won out. wizard, and had he given out that he proposed to start any great enterprise calling for millions of capital he could have secured the necessary back- ing inside of twenty-four hours. Today Bob in one of the big guns of Wall Street. Kittie is his happy little wife, and he has several growing girls and boys. : : Next week’s issue will contain “A BOY WITH GRIT; OR, THE YOUNG SALESMAN WHO MADE HIS MARK.” MONEY KINGS oo ee RODEO TO. BE BIG FEATURE OF THE SESQUI EXPOSITION Truly international in its scope and variety will be the rodeo which will be one of the outstanding features of the Sesqui Contennial International Exposition in Philadelphia. The entries that have already been received from Mexican and Canadian champions, in addi- tien to those from our own western ranges, as- sure a competition greater than that which thrilled spectators in Wembley at England’s Im- perial Exposition, and all other rodeos in this country. ‘ Senor L. Alvez Guyou has spoken for the Mex- ican contingent. From the Canadian Northwest are coming not only the most daring horsemen - and horsewomen, but also the wildest among the big bucking horses and outlaw steers of that vivid region. Approximately 200 cowboys and cowgirls are in the long list of entries. This includes the pres- ent champions in all classes and the cowboys and cowgirls who have given stern battle to the cham- pions. will make these competitions in western sports the biggest affair of its kind ever staged, el abe He was hailed as a young financial - Cash prizes to the total of $50,000 and trophies that will cost thousands of dollars more ~ a3
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/ : 24 WILL, THE WAGON BOY _ or, The Diamonds that Came by Express By GASTON GARNE (A Serial Story.) CHAPTER XI.—The Picture in the Light - But the description of these pictures in the ight must be reserved for another chapter, as they proved to be of the highest importance in the solution of the mystery which had gathered about the missing diamonds that came by express. “It began after Mr. Bum, the fakir, had been playing his flageolet about twenty minutes, and the first thing Will thought he saw was a hand ust out of the flame and suddenly drawn k again. ' Jt was a large hand, and decidedly hairy. The ‘jpight of it did not disturb him in the least. “Any old thing went with Will that night; he ‘had come to take everything that had happened, was happening, or could happen as a matter of course. . ‘ Next came two hands, and then many. - Some were plainly the hands of men, others were long and slender, like the hands of women, and others still were children’s hands; but all were dark like the doctor’s and those of Mr. Bum, the fakir. : ' ‘Then suddenly, as the music rose and fell, the hands disappeared, and the pictures began to come. ; ‘ Tt is hard to explain just how Will saw them ‘or dreamed that he saw them, but somehow they seemed to form themselves in the flames. First he saw himself seated in his wagon in_ front of Allen’s Express office: He appeared to e counting his packages and checking them off his book. Then like a flash the picture changed, and there e was again in his wagon, but it was on Maiden ane. Yes, the wagon was in front of the old wilding where the murder had taken place. Everything about the picture was perfect. {ll could ‘see the store windows with their dis- ay of jewelry and silverware, and the lights fwinkling in them; he could see the people pass- g up and down the Lane, and there even was hig little terrier “Spot” beside him on the seat, arking at the passers-by. j - As for himself, he was leaning over to take,a package out of the wagon. It was the package of diamonds. He was reading the address—‘“Karl utter.” He saw himself jump out of the wagon nd run into the doorway. Presto! Change! : Another change came into the light now. _ We was in the lapidary’s office, and the scene the delivery of the diamonds was being acted r again. : Will watcheed it all with intense interest, and th still greater interest waited for what was to ae j came. - small wooden FAME AND FORTUNE WEEKLY > This time Will as not in it. It was the*old © lapidary alone. Will saw him lay the package on tlie little counter, take a knife, and cut the strings. Then he slowly opened it, and up went his hands, and his placid face became filled with amazement. Will saw it all, even to the diamonds. This picture was progressive, one thing succeeding another like “living pictures” thrown on a screen. And such diamonds. It was an amazing display. : All had been removed from their settings; each of the larger ones was enclosed in a paper by itself, and the old lapidary opened each paper _ in turn. There was a small oblong box in the package ~ which he opened last. ; This contained what appeared to be diamonds of huge size. : ‘ Will saw the lapidary laugh as he took them up one by one. - : “These,” he thought, “must be the imitation diamonds the doctor spoke of.” Then he remembered the Great Ghorgee! Jt was there! Karl Kutter had discovered it. He laughed no longer—his eyes opened wide. He seized the huge stone eagerly and applied a glass to it. It was as big as a pigeon’s egg, and was cut without a “table,” as the flat surface forming the top of the ordinary get is called. There was little glitter to it, however, and it looked less like a the others. Will seemed to know instinctively that this must be the Great Ghorgee. ; After examining it attentively through the glass for a few moments, Karl Kutter ‘took it to his bench and proceeded to 'wach it with some liquid which he poured out of a small bottle. Evidently this removed the substance which had been spread over the diamond to conceal its He character, and it shone out like a blazing Ts Picture after picture followed each other with great rapidity. To describe them all would take - far too much space. se cact The next one of. real importance, to our story was that which showed the old lapidary when he © had packed the diamonds, big and little, in a 1 box, looking about for a place to hide them. . At first he had looked at the safe. ; That, it will be remembered, was entirely filled with drawers. : : The big diamonds and the large imitation stone could not have gone into any of the shallow drawers and the drawer been shut on account of their size. Re Apparently for some reason not to be shown in the pictures the lapidary did not wish to carry, the diamonds out of the place, and as he could not put them in the safe it was necessary to secrete them somewhere. : genuine diamond than some of Then came the last picture which showed how _ he did it. é Over against the wall was an old chimney with a stovepipe hole above. P This was not in use, as the the office was heated 4 by means of a steam radiator. The stovepipa fe =
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Fo Pe cy hole was closed by a wad of old newspapers ‘which had been thrust into it. ; In this last picture Will saw Karl Kutter stand- - ing on a chair by the chimney. He pulled out the paper and thrust the package of diamonds. into the stovepipe hole, then restored the paper. As this picture vanished the music of the flageolet ceased, and Will, who surely had been na sort of a half trance, came to himself again. Mr. Bum, still squatting on the other side of the tripod, appeared to have played himself to sleep, for his head had-fallen on his breast. The doctor was sitting cross-legged on the divan, and was in the act of rolling another cig- arette. ; “We can talk now,” he whispered, “provided we don’t speak loud enough to disturb him. Did you see the pictures in the light, Will?” ~ * “T’ve been dreaming!” breathed Will. “I must ‘have been dreaming. Surely, it can’t be real.” “Tt was real, and it was true. Did you find ‘out about the diamonds?” Will briefly told what he had seen. “Good! Good! ” whispered the doctor. “I am sorry you saw nothing to tell you who committed the murder.” © “Will there be more ” _e - . “Not tonight. Bumjado is exhausted. Nothing more can be done at this sitting. We have done wonders at is it. One thing is certain; whoever ~ eommitted the murder never got the Great Ghor- _. gee or any other one of those stones.” “Po you really believe that the diamonds are - in that chimney hole now?” asked Will, his eyes opening with with amazement, for the more he ‘y ahaagee of what he had seen the more astounding it all became. “J certainly do,” replied the doctor. “There isn’t the least doubt of it. So sure,am I that if it was possible for us to get into that building tonight I should go there at once; but of course, that ‘cannot be done without calling upon the police to help us, and that is just what I don’t want to do. But hush! We must not talk any more about it now, for at any moment Bumjado _ may awake.” 3 : In fact, Mr. Bum did: awake a very few min- - utes afterward; in the meantime the fire in the dish had died down. : The old Hindu arose, and bowing before the doctor,’spoke a few earnest words, quite unin- -* telligible to Will, of course, as was the doctor’s - reply. : 4 Then he packed up his basket, picked up the tripod and retired. : : “You can put on your clothes now, Will,” said the doctor. “Here we are, and for the balance of * the night here we must remain. Tomorrow I shall, if all goes well, prove to you how much truth there is in those pictures you saw in the - ” light. Ad _ CHAPTER XII—Will Finds the Great Ghorgee. Will slept that night on the divan with Doctor ~ Pajaro. : Mz. Bum brought them an elegant little supper just before midnight, after which they were left to themselves. : _ Early in the morning breakfast was served 2 FAME AND FORTUNE WEEKLY . 26, in the room, and as soon as they were through Will and the doctor left the place. Very little talking was done until they had left the house several blocks behind them. ., “It had all turned out better than I thought it would,” the doctor then said. “I am sorry that no light was thrown upon the murder, but I hardly expected it. Later we may try again, but the’ first thing to do is to make a rush for those diamonds. If they are still.in the chimney they are ours, but it is pretty certain that the won't be left there very long. Somebody will be overhauling the place. Strange that the de- tectives should not have made a thorough search, but that is the way it goes.” . They pushed on to Maiden Lane, reached the old building and hurried up to the top floor, meeting no one on the way, and attracting no special attention. “We are in luck,” whispered the doctor when nee. found themselves standing by Karl Kutter’s oor. He tried it, and found it fast, for the lock which Mr. Allen had broken had been repaired. “How are we going to get in?” whispered Will. “Hold on,” ‘said the doctor. “I can manage that. I—hush! There is some one inside there now!” ‘ They stood listening, and could distinctly hear some one walking about inside the room. “Confound it!” breathed the doctor. “The place must have been rented!” “Hadn’t we better knock on the door?” ques- tioned Will. “Perhaps we had,” replied the doctor, and he’ ‘was just going to do it when the door was sud- denly opened, and they were confronted by a large, heavily built man with a one side of his face. He started back at the sight of the two dark figures standing before him. Apparently he had not heard their movements outside of the door. PB hy you wanting anything here?” he gruffly asked. . “We wanted to see Mr. Kutter,” replied the ~ doctor. “Hey?” demanded the man, putting his hand to his ear, which showed the reason why their movements outside of the door had not: been heard. “You'll have to speak louder. hearing,” he added. “We wanted to see Mr. Kutter!”™shouted the “T’ve hired doctor. “Kutter’s dead,” said the man. the office.” ; : Thereupon he locked the door and hurried off downstairs. : For a moment the doctor stood irresolue. “Fool that I am! I believe he has played it ont us!” he ‘suddenly exclaimed. “After him, Will. Quick! He may have found the diamonds. There . isn’t a minute to be-lost!” : ; They dashed downstairs, but they were too late, for when they reached. Maiden Lane the man had disappeared. The doctor was in a terrible rage. I’m hard of “We must get back,” he said. “I don’t believe that fellow has hired the office. side at any cost.” (To be continued) 3 ' We must get ine peculiar scar on ~ 4
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26 FAME AND FORTUNE WEEKLY Fame and Fortune Weekly NEW YORK, JUNE 25, 1926 TERMS. TO SUBSCRIBERS Bin gle<‘Copiosisivicsesseavecess Postage Free 8 cents One Copy Three Months ye te 51.00 One Copy Six Months .. mga * 2.00 One Copy One Year ...... liga S 4,00 Canada, $4.50; Foreign, $5.00. HOW TO SEND MONEY—At our risk send P. O, Money Order, Check or Registered Letter; remittances ‘in any other way are at your risk. We accept Postage Stamps the same as cash. When sending silver wrap the Coin in a separate piece of paper to avoid cutting the envelope. Write your name and address plainly, Address letters to HARRY E. WOLFF, ‘Harry E. Wolff, Pree. Publisher, Inc., Charlies E. Nylander, sea 166 W. 23d St., N. Y. L, F, Wilain, Treas, ITEMS OF INTEREST LARGEST CAVE : Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky, is considered the largest cave in the world in that it has the longest avenues and has been more completely explored than other caves. The Carlsbad cavern contains the greatest number of chambers. THE BUGONG MOTH é -The Bugong moth or, butterfly is a delicacy which epicures among certain aboriginal peoples -of Australia will travel long distances to obtain. The butterflies gather every year on the slopes of the Bugong Mountains, in New South ales, where they are caught by being suffocated by the smoke of wood fires lighted under the trees. SOLDIER LETS RICHES WAIT Robert William Bradley, private, first class, Fourth Infantry, resumed the routine of army life with no apparent desire immediately to take ‘over the management of a $200,000 oil estate at Smackover, Ark. ; \ Bradley, stationed at Fort George Wright, said he would claim the money when he could “get around to it.””. He plans to complete his second enlistment, of which he has a year and ten months to serve. : Advices from Arkansas said he had been sought for two years, SHIPPING CLERK IN OHIO FINDS HE IS A LORD Fired from his job as a shipping clerk in an Akron rubber factory, Albert Webster thought the world was just a place to worry. Then came a letter and Albert changed his mind.- But his name is no longer Albert. The letter changed all that. He is now Lord Allgood, of Durham, England, and he is master of an Eng- lish estate of 3,000 acres. He was a shipping clerk here six months ago. Then his uncle, Lord Allgood died, and the aunt offered to adopt the Akron man and permit him to assume the title. ; ' Now he won’t need the rubber company’s semi- monthly pay envelope and is on his way to his _ estate and dignities. : BOY OF 11 SAVES 260-POUND MAN FROM DEATH IN HIGHLAND LAKE Eleven-year-old Harry Sulzbach of Highland Lake, N. Y., rescued 260-pound Joe Marchetta from drowning in Highland Lake while six men stood on a dock and cheered. The man and boy had been fishing when the boat upset and neither could reach it. ; f The lad swam ashore. Then he noticed that Marchetta had gone down. He swam back and saw Marchetta come up for a moment, only to sink again. When he again rose the lad caught his clothes and towed him ashore. There the men on the dock lifted Marchetta out and saved his - life by first aid. : - Marchetta gave Harry a fine gift for saving him. Harry’s father owns Pinehurst House at Highland Lake. LAUGHS. There are plenty of people besides chiropractors who make money by rolling the bones, A man in Indiana is so dry he won’t have elec- tric lights because of the “juice.” : Billy Sunday, we understand, does not deny that he is a brother to Haster Sunday. Money talks—oh,. well, they have a woman's head on the back of a silver dollar. “T paid the plumber the last installment today.” “Thank goodness! I can at last take a bath with a clean conscience.” Our neighbor's boy gives the following sentence using the words sodas, “Mary uses lipstick and sodas sister Ann,” . “T see where a cow ate an airplane the other day.” “Maybe she was the original cow ‘that ¢ jumped over the moon and did it in a fit of jeal- ousy.’ Mistress—James, run out and tell those ur- chins to get off the lawn. Oh, I wish I had a dog. Servant—But, ma’am, I’ve got such a cold this morning I can scarcely speak a word. Mistress— much the better. Rush out and bark at them, then. Weep no more my lady, Weep no more today Because your nice complexion Your tears will wash away. No wonder there are so many accidents. How can you drive a car and keep your eye on crowd- — ed traffic and dangerous feminine curves at the same time. : ¢ “Smith,” said the schoolmaster, what is a cape?” “Please, sir, it’s land extending into the __ sea.” Right! And you, Jones, what is a gulf?” “Water extending into the land,” was Jones’ re- ply.. “Also correct. Now, Clark, what isa moun- tain?” “Er—it’s—er,” stumbled Clark, “it’s land extending into the air!” i
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» - FAME AND FORTUNE WEEKLY oT “FOUND HIS BOY Tom Merry was a bachelor of thirty, but he looked considerably older at the time, and more especially when he was in a thoughtful mood. He was in a thoughtful mood as he was crossing the South Ferry to Brooklyn one night, after he had put in a weary day in a lawyer’s office in the lower part of the City of New York. _ 3 As the boat was pushing into the eo little boy toddled out of the cabin toward him, and éaught him by the coat as he lisped forth: “ec a a.” i 2 At that moment a tall woman, wearing a dark veil, followed the child out of the cabin, and eaught ‘him as if to draw away from Tom, as she said in husky tones: “You bad boy, that is net your father. Please excuse the child, sir.” The people were hurrying out of the boat at the moment, and as the little fellow still clung to Tom Merry, he bent down and raised him in his ‘arms, saying, in his good-natured tones. “All right, madam, I will take the little fellow up over the bridge. P And without waiting for the consent of the lady, who was dressed in black, he sprang up toward the ferry gate with the little boy who ap- peared to cling to him in the most friendly man- ner. The lady followed hastily, and when she reached the gate a tall man, who appeared to be muffled up with the collar of his fall overcoat, sprang at her and seized her by the arm crying: “T have caught-you at last! Now I want you to come right home with me.” “You are mistaken, sir, as I do not know you. 1 Let. go of my arm, I beg you.” 7 “Tf the lady is your wife,” protested Tom Merry, “you shouldn’t break her arm in that way, and I ‘ask you to let-her go also.” ier ' The stranger answered by raising his right arm and aiming a blow at Tom’s face. : a “Tom did not fancy the: kindness intended for him, and he warded off the blow with his right hand, giving the fellow a severe push at the same =. Ame, : rE : The st¥anger fell to the ground, grumbling fear- fully, and releasing his grasp on the woman at the = pame time. —: : ; _. Then away she darted, flying like a hunted eriminal as she turned down Furman Street. + Tom Merry drew back, expecting the man to - ~ assaii him again. : When the man regained his feet, however, he did not attempt to assail Tom, but hastened away after the woman. : £ When Tom reached Furman Street with the little boy in his arms he looked down in search of the woman and her pursuer, but could not see a trace of the man or the woman. _ He kept walking up and down the street for ~~ fully ten minutes, while the little fellow in his arms appeared to be perfectly contented, as he soon fell into a sound slumber. After reflecting for some time longer, the puz- zled man decided to take the little fellow’ to his own room, which was only a few streets away, and then give notice to the nearest police station { as to where he lived, so that the father or mother might be informed about him. | When the weary man returned to his humble bedroom again, he was not in the humor for wor! and he took a seat in his old armchair, as he sai to himself: “Tl rest a while and then tackle the work.” He did rest a while, as he fell into a sound sleep, from which he did not awaken until after daylight in the morning. The little stranger was still sleeping soundly in the bed, and after rubbing his eyes and washing’ himself in cold water. Tom thought of his wor and proceeded to light his pipe. ‘ When he arrived at the office he found a very good piece of news before him in the form of a letter from one of the leading New York publish- ers. - Tom Merry had written a novel some time be- fore, and he had sént the manuscript for publica- tion to several publishers, but it had been rejected time and again. y That novel was at last accepted by a good house, and Tom was offered a fair price for it at’ a time when he was sadly in need of a few dollars. On reaching the house he found that no one had come to inquire about the little stranger, and he then hastened away to the station-house to make inquiries there. Yes, a young woman had inquired about the boy very early in the morning, and the sergant had pba her both the Brooklyn and the New York ity addresses of the man who had taken charge of him for the night. Tom Merry hastened back to his boarding- house again, only to learn that the child’s mother ~ ' had not called there as yet. On reaching his old employer’s office. in the afternoon he found a letter addressed to him in a lady’s fine handwriting, It was from the boy’s mother, and in it she. begged him, in the most imploring terms, to care for the child for the present, while she promised to remunerate him for his trouble. The letter concluded by saying: “The man whe assailed me last night has been the bane of my life, and he is not my husband, but he is my child’s uncle. The child’s father died six months ago, and he did resemble you very much. “JT am compelled to fly in haste from the wretch who is persecuting me, and I dare not take my boy with me, fearing that his uncle would pursue me through him. I cannot give you my name or my future address, as_ goodness only knows where I will have to fly. If you have the heart of a man, take care of the child for his own sake, and he will reward. you in future if I do not. “It may be days, months, or even years before you hear from me again, but a splaees and un- happy woman swears to you that you will never regret the kindness you may show the little boy, who called you father on first beholding you.” Having no near relatives in the world that he knew of, Tom took the little boy to a respectable boarding-house in Harlem, where he represented him as his own son. The boy’s protector ‘was known in New York ire City to his very few friends as Tom Merry, bet, ® that was not his real name: 7
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28 me Some years before his father became involved in a disgraceful affair in the great city, and Tom thought it best to travel under an assumed name. Very soon after taking charge of the boy, reve- lations appeared in the New York papers which proved that he was an innocent man, and that he was the victim of clever sharpers. About the time that the revelations were pub- lished, Tom received a splendid offer from a mer- cantile house in San Francisco, and he went to that city, taking little Massey, as the boy called himself, with him. On arriving on the shores of the Pacific, the honest. fellow assumed his real name again, and that was Tobias Merriman. ’ When young Massey Merriman, as he was called, was fifteen years of age, his father took him on a trip to the East, and they arrived in the city of New York in safety. Desiring to know if the strange lady had ever made inquiries about her son, he called at the office of the old lawyer, where he found two letters awaiting him there for over eight years. _ They were both written from London by Mas- sey’s mother, and one of them inclosed a draft for one hundred dollars. _ The letters from London were signed “Emma Wheeler,” and the lady who called at the lawyer’s office gave the same name, but she did not leave any address or state when she would call again. » The anxious man left his New York address for the time with the old lawyer, afd then hastened away to insert advertisements in the New York apers addressed to Emma Wheeler, in which Bs intimated where Thomas Merry could be found. ~The adopted father took his son to the theater that night to see a famous actress who had re- turned to America after many years of triumph in Europe and Australia. - ~ Merriman was surprised upon hearing the voice of the great actress, and he turned to gaze at the boy beside him, as he said to himself: “Blame my eyes, if that isn’t just like the voice of the woman I heard on the ferry-boat that night. Can it be that it is my mascot’s mother?” Merriman kept asking the question during the whole performance, and he was asking it still when they went out into the street, while he con- tinued, saying: ; _ “Tf I could only find out where she is stopping, I would call on her this very night.” - At that moment the actress came out of the theatre. ; The woman sprang into the cab waiting for her, ~ and the driver started on the instant, while Merri- man dragged his son into another conveyance as he said to the driver. “Pollow the actress, and I will pay you well.” The two cabs were soon rolling away up Broad- _ Way, and a third followed soon after. The actress was just entering her private board- Ing-house as she heard hurried footsteps behind per, and then a voice fell upon her ear, saying: “Miss Parker, may I not speak afew words with you?” - Before the actress could reply her old assailant prang out of the third. cab and ran at her like a yrazy man, crying: _ “J tell you I must have the boy. Give him up to pe, or it will be worse for you.” f FAME AND FORTUNE WEEKLY : Merriman recognized the voice on the instant, ane it was years since he had heard it be- ore. é The actress stared down at Merriman and the young lad with eager eyes. “Who are you, sir?” “T was once known as Tom Merry, madam.” The words were scarcely uttered when the wo- man gave a cry of atonishment, and she then © gazed at the lad, erying: “Is this dear Massey?” “Tt is, madam.” “My dear son, I am able to protect you now, and to reward the good man who saved you that night.” The crazy man seized the woman at the moment when Merriman caught him and looked him straight in the eyes as he cried: - “Frank Merriman, do you not know me?” “My brother Tobias!” gasped the fellow, who was about two years older than Massey’s pro- tector. ; He then fell down, as if in a fit, and Tobias bent — over him, saying: “T thought he was dead long ago.” “He ought to be in the madhouse,” cried the ex- cited woman, “as he has been the bane of my life.” _ On the death of her husband Frank Merriman — insisted that she would become his wife, but the woman. refused. oo Then commenced a career of persecution which only ended on the death of the crazy man, ~which took place three nights after the meeting near the the theatre. Z - Tom Merry’s mascot was really his own nephew, after all, and the bright lad was heir to a large estate in South America, which had been held from him by his crazy uncle. : About three months after Merriman and his mascot returned to San Francisco, and Massey’s mother returned with them. Tobias Merriman prevailed on the actress to be- come his wife soon after, and the good man. had _ _never reason to regret the night when he first discovered his little mascot who had addressed him as papa. ; TYPEWRITING RECORD AMAZES SHOW JUDGES a The almost incredible record for typewriting, set by Albert Tangora of Paterson, N. J., a short time ago, at the annual efficiency exposition of the National Business Show held at the Sixty- ninth Regiment armory, Lexington Avenue and ‘ Twenty-sixth Street, New York, will remain a | mark for speed demons to aim at for a long time, according to authorities at the exhibition. Loe Tangora pounded out 9,120 words in an hour and, after penalties were deducted, was still credited with a sped of 147 words a minute. He beat by a single word George Hossfield, four times holder of the record. SMe seat) Record crowds flocked to the business show recently, executive’s day on its calendar, Accord- ing to visitors, the show was an effective exposi- tion of American efficiency and is pointing out — to interested visitors methods by which they can_ increase the earnings of their organizations. Og
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FAME AND FORTUNE WEEKLY 29 . GOOD READING . ~ 4,000 ARE REPORTED MISSING AS if JAPANESE VOLCANO ERUPTS A dispatch from Sapporo, Hokkaido, to the Tokio Nichinichi, reports that 1,000 farmers are missing as the result of an eruption of a long extinet voleano in the mountains of Tokachi Prov- ince, Central Hokkaido. The same dispatch reports that 2,000 farmers were driven to take refuge in the hills by the overfiowing of the River Kambetsu owing to the eruption. ‘There were three explosions of the voleano yes- terday, each carrying huge quantities of rocks and. lava and causing numerous landslides. . One village is reported to have been wiped out by a flood of water and lava, 200 of the inhab- itants being buried. “3 HUNDRED DEAD IN SEA OF MUD . A mountain lake, released by an eruption from a long inactive volcano crater, caused the greater - part of the death and-destruction which followed yecent resumption of activity in Mount Tokachi, in Central Hokkaido, northernmost of the princi- pal islands of Japan. ; The Governor of Hokkaido reported to the Home Minister that one hundred dead and more than two hundred injured had been removed from the mass of mud, lava and rocks precipitated from the long slumbering crater, ; Besides these, about one thousand farmers. of “the newly opened, but rapidly developing agri- cultural district around the mountain are miss- ing, and it is impossible to tell how many of these may have been buried alive in the floods of water and mud. SURPRISES IN SIBERIA T had thought of Siberia as a convict settlement only, with a small population composed largely of yiminals and political exiles. I found it a coun- a8 of nearly nine million people, ninety-seven per cent. of whom were either natives or voluntary immigrants, with the exile system discontinued or transferred to the island of Sakhalin, and all, as a rule, earning better wages, living in better houses, having better food and clothing, and en- oying much more political freedom than in Euro- pean Russia, and, indeed, in some other Euro- ~ pean countries in whose behalf our sympathies et j eographie Magazine. Be eliowad it to be a frozen wilderness and a desert waste. The portion through which I traveled was-a land like Minnesota, the Dakotas and the foothills of the Rockies, where wheat and ‘rye and vegetables matured; where strawberries, ~ eurrants and raspberries abound; where sheep, horses and cattle graze unsheltered throughout the year, and where a greater extent of virgin forest of splendid birch and pine is found than _ the whole area of the United States. - : - I was told, and I believe it is true, that straight through the Kingan Mountains to the Urals, for ut four hundred miles north of the Trans- ‘Bibctian Railroad like conditions prevail, and By Be eae ave not been evoked, says a correspondent of the — north of this tillable land was four hundred miles or more of unbroken forest before the frozen tundra or Arctic waste was reached. DAISY, PET COW, ON STROLL, STARTS A ROW, WHEN FAMILY COMES TO AID OF SCARED GIRL Daisy, a brindle-and-white milk sow, owned by Anna and Tessie Stravinsky, spinsters, or 994 Lorraine Street, Brooklyn, wandered from her back yard just before milking time last night and rambled into Atkins Avenue, where Mary Sangue- doice, 4 years old, a city child, was at play. Daisy walked in the immemorial custom of cows out for a Sunday afternoon stroll in the springtime, with a list first to one side and then’ to the other; and Mary, who stood wide-eyed in Daisy’s path, fell to the pavement, screaming: “Tt bit me! It bit me!” ; ‘ : Daisy, pet of her mistresses, paid no attention to the obvious slander, but not so with Mary’s father, Joseph; her mother, Angela; her brother, Salvatore, 11 years old, and a host of Sangue- doice relatives and friends who poured from the — Sanguedoice home at 579 Atkins Avenue. ; Joseph, Angela and Salvatore, 11 years old, and their relatives. and friends, a dozen all - told, grasped scantlings as they came from the San~ guedoice yard’and in a body set upon Daisy with | such a belaboring of sticks, stones and hard words as ever a pet cow received, while Mary continued to cry, as if she believed it, “It bit me! _ It bit me!” j 2 All the neighborhood resounded with the cries a of the vendetta on Daisy until Anna and Tessie Stravinsky, roused from Sunday afternoon naps, cames to the rescue of their pet, milk cream and butter. : a Salvatore, 11 years old, saw them first and,. wielding a scantling lustily, he met them more than half way. The women screamed with pain- and anger and attempted to give blow for blow. Someone telephoned for the police. Patrolmen ; McCarthy, McKay and Feeley and Detective Her- aS man Schiesser, sole reserves of the Liberty Ave- xt nue Station, came in a flivver. They subdued | Salvatore, 11 years old, first. Next they quieted the other Sanguedoices. Detective Schiesser <3 stood guard over Daisy, who was round-eyed with ~~ amazement at such goings-on, and the patrolmen Ss looked after the Misses Stravinsky. : ‘ Daisy’s owners were cut on the head and were sent to the Bradford Street Hospital. Salvatore, Be 11 years old, was arrested, charged with juvenile 4 delinquency in striking them, and was paroled in the custody of his father for arraignment today * in the Children’s Court. Detective Schiesser led Daisy back to her yard. eee Long: after milking time Daisy mooed in the darkness in the manner of a cow which has not been milked long after milking time. A neighbor telephoned to the Liberty Avenue Station that. something should be done about it. apes “All right,” said Detective Schiesser, who an-- swered the telephone, “I'll find a cop who’s been raised on a farm. He’ll milk her.” gts ae
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Wass 30 FAME AND FORTUNE WEEKLY INTERESTING ARTICLES ANCIENT DISPENSARY About 4600 B. C. a public dispensary was es- tablished in Egypt, the medical attendant. for which received the equivalent of $500 a year for his services. This was at that time about five kimes the amount received by a skilled laborer. GAS MASKS FOR READING Some of the students in Paris, when perusing ancient books, are in the habit of wearing gas masks for protection from inhalation of microbes which are said to infect the old volumes. GIRL, 90 POUNDS, ARRIVES HOME FROM LION HUNT Perhaps the most diminutive big game hunter that ever brought a lion down in his tracks or gurvived the charge of a herd of African buffalo Miss Ann C. Bliven, twenty-three, of New York, arriving recently on the Cunarder Fran- conia, returning from a cruise around the world. Miss Bliven is four feet eight inches tall and weighs 90 pounds. She recently came out of the Belgian and French Congo with the pelts of many wild beasts, including a lion. She missed an ele- yhant, but her brother got it. She is going back ext year. — SNAKE IN AUTO HOLDS UP TRAFFIC IN. BUSY STREET A huge coach whip snake brought traffic to a standstill at a downtown corner and caused a ‘growd of pedestrians hunting the snake almost fo dismantle a small coupe in which the reptile took hiding after being chased from the top of the Jewish synagogue. -' At first the snake coiled around the fan and fought back as the driver lifted the hood and then began racing back and forth on the trans-- mission, resisting all efforts to destroy it. He disappeared, and after the unholstery had been ripped off he was at last captured.” NECK BROKEN, SPINAL CORD SEVERED, se, MAN LIVES Despite a broken neck and the partial sever- _ ance of the spinal cord,*John M. Peregoy con- tinues to live—miraculously, said doctors at Maryland General Hospital. The case is almost without medical precedent, according to physicians who are coming from ' gil over the city to inspect the injury and X-ray photographs of it as a medical phenomenon. _f Peregoy received the injury while walking on a farm near Harrisburg, Pa. He fell into an irri- ation ditch. His recovery is impossible, doctors say. 10,000 BOTTLES TO CHART CURRENTS i IN HARBOR HERE t | = ‘To test the currents in New York Harbor the York City is preparing to set 10,000 bottles adrift there, it was made known at the War Depart- ment. ; | The board, through Arthur S. Tuttle, chief en- York of Estimate and Apportionment of New _ '.ginees, has requested the assistance of the Chief ore Pilea Up an 5 ah eee ae 'S 40 be ay ead of Engineers: of the War Department in investi- gating the currents. “s It is planned to release the sealed bottles from: selected points in four lots at biweekly intervals. Each bottle will contain a card asking the finder for certain information to be mailed to the board. “WOUNDED HERO’S” YARN FALSE ONE; HO, WORKHOUSE! The proverbial silver lining was as absent from the cloud which overhung Lawrence Oberndorfer, chauffeur, of No. 1885 Nelson Avenue, in Traffic Court, as was the silver plate he asserted he wore in his abdomen ag a result of being wounded in the. Argonne. He was before Magistrate Jean Norris charged with reckless driving. : Pleading guilty, he said he had been badly wounded in France and had a silver plate in his stomach. But a probation officer told the court that although Oberndorfer had been in the army, he had never been in battle. _ The absence of the silver plate meant two days . in a Workhouse cell for the chauffeur. He failed fo pay his $25 fine. _ AMERICANS DON’T WANT TALKING MOVIES; PREFER SILENT FILM ~ SHOWS, SAYS EDISON : Americans are not interested in talking movies; they prefer the restful’ quiet of the film theatre, and to reproduce the screen actor’s talk would te the poe : is is the way it appears to Thomas A. Edison, who led the development of both the movie and the phonograph, the instruments it is _ now proposed to combine. = The seventy-nine-year-old inventor answered - questions in the Hotel Traymore, Atlantic City, recently by saying that “talking movies: will not come into general commercial use as long as the _ American public continues to display its present” attitude. ape “Americans require a restful quiet in the mov- ~ ing picture theatre,” he continued; “and for them talking from the lips of the figures on the screen destroys the illusion. Devices for protect- ing the film actor’s speech can be perfected, but the idea is not practical. The stage is the place. for the spoken word. The reactions of the Amer-. ican public up to now indicate the movies will - not supersede it.” : = “Do your experiments lead you to believe that telephone pictures from continent to continent — will soon include moving pictures, projected in London and shown in New York?” ‘he es asked. “It is entirely possible, but only as a ‘stunt.’ 1 do not believe it would be practical for either the American or the British movie industry.” Someone asked him what he thought would be § happening in this,world one hundred years from now. Mr. Edison smiled and said he hadn’t the — slightest idea; he did think the world aint ; progress mechanically and industrially and that other men, in that future time, would answer the question, .. : : : 4
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FAME AND FORTUNE WEEKLY 8], FROM EVERYWHERE SEA GULL AS PET John R. Stacey, a Marblehead lobster man, has done something that few other men have been able to accomplish. He has won the confidence of a wild sea gull so that the bird will accompany him on his trips to inspect his traps and will even eat raw fish from his hands. This particular gull is jealous, too, as he drives away any other gull that seems inclined to make friends with Mr. Stacey. 20 x 12-INCH PICTURE COSTS: BUYER $17,000 A small painting by Manet, a “Punchinello,” 20 inches high and 12 1-2 inches wide, has fetched 420,000 francs at a sale at the Hotel Drouot. In : addition the buyer will have to pay taxes of near- _ ly twenty per cent., which will bring the cost to : more than 500,000 franes, or about $17,000. The purchaser is a Frenchman. The little picture was shown in the 1874 Salon and was bought by the celebrated singer, Jean Baptiste Faure. It was sold in 1878 for 2,000 gold francs, or about $400. A: = 7 4 BAPTIST MEETING EJECTS WOMAN FOR Se LOUD PRAYER _ A woman was ejected from the Northern Bap- tist convention, Washington, D. C., recently, for praying aloud. Mrs. Jeannette Loeks, a delegate from Grand Rapids, Mich., and a fundamentalist, has been -assured a chance to speak when the fundamen- talists-modernist battle was fought out. But she was ignored. ‘ When Dr. Edwin H. Rhoades, Jr., of Toledo, president of the convention and a modernist, ~ ealled for prayer, Mrs. Loeks’ voice was audible. Doctor Rhoades asked that she be escorted from the hall. ; Mrs. Loeks left quietly. “BROKE,” FARMERS DESERT COUNTRY :; FOR JOBS IN CITY = Not the bright lights, nor the theatres, but _ bread and butter, has brought about the migra- tion of the farmer from the country to the city. ; That is the consensus of 100,000 farmers who have answered a questionnaire sent out by the _ Sears-Roebuck Agrictulture Foundation, The desertion of the farm is because of finan- ~~ cial pressure—the farmer is going “broke,” they a ge Ag city every member of the family can be- come a wage earner, the farmers point out. _ Prices to the farmer are high, taxes are high and the cost of production is more than the price obtainable, according to the survey. SHRIST PREACHED IN INDIA ANCIENT LAMA WRITINGS SHOW _ The existence of manuscripts in the Hemis - Monastery of Ladak, written during the life of x Christ by Lamas and telling about His travels and preaching in India, Tibet and Central Asia, has been verified by the Roerich art expedition, the Boerich Museum here announced a few days ago, the Associated Press says. The manuscripts will throw much light on the vague years of Christ’s life before his return to Jerusalem in His twenty-ninth year, it is believed. The expedition, in and around the Chinese Tur- kestan since 1923. was detained in Central Asia by the Daotai of Hotan, but later was released after its arms were confiscated, according to the museum. Nicholas Roerich, painter, philosopher and mystic; Mrs. Roerich and their son George, an authority on Oriental languages, made up the ex- pedition, which left America early in 1923. They have sent back to the museum at No. 322 River- side Drive more than one hundred and fifty paintings, embracing an entire artistic panorama of the Far East’s histories-and legends. _ BRITISH SCIENTIST PRESENTS NEW THE- ORY OF SUN AS A VORTEX SPINNIN WITH UNEQUAL SPEEDS ‘ That the sun, instead of rotating like the earth, areas on whose surface revolve at a speed pro-| portionately greater than the areas near its cen- tre, is a sort of vortex spinning rapidly in the middle and more slowly at the outside, is the new and revolutionary theory advanced by Dr. J. H. Jeans, the British scientist. Doctor Jeans, who was Professor of Applied Mathematics at Princeton University for four years and Research Associate at Mount Wilson Observatory three years ago, has laid his view before the Royal Astronomical Society. It disputes the opinion, held ever since Gallileo first noted how the sun spots traveled across the disk, that the sun, like the earth, rotated all in one piece. : Radiation is held by Doctor Jeans to be the fac- tor which accounts for the fact that the speed rotation of the sun is much less near the surface than at the centre. Until recently radiation was thought to be immaterial, so that it could pass freely through the body of the sun. “In the modern view, however,” says Professor H. H. Turner, Professor of Astronomy of Oxford . University, commenting on Doctor Jean’s the- ory, “radiation has become material, so that on its way from the hot centre of the sun outward to the cooler surface it puts an increasing brake on the rotating layers, thus ultimately reducing the speed of the outer layers to a mere fraction of that of the inner. “It is jostled by the layers and jostles them in turn. During its ascent to the surface its ro- tating speed would be continuously increased bye the jostling layers, and these, by reaction, would themselves bejcorrespondingly slowed down. The layers would be successively impeded more and more, the outermost suffering the most severely. Thus the stream of particles from-the centre of the sun outward would ultimately reduce the speed of the outer layers considerably,”
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TO BECOME BEAUTIFUL.—One of the brightest and most valuable little books ever given to the world. Hverybody wishes to know how to be- come beautiful. both male and female. ; No. 29. HOW TO BECOME AN INVENTOR.—DPver boy should know how inventions originated. This boo explains them all, giving examples in electricity, hy- draulics, magnetism, optics, pneumatics, mechanics, ete. No. 30. HOW TO COOK.—One of the most instructive books on cooking ever published. It contains recipes for cooking meats, fish, game, and oysters; also pies, puddings, cakes and all kinds of pastry, and a grand collection of recipes. No. 37. HOW TO KEEP HOUSE.—It contains infor- mation for everybody, boys, girls, men and women; it will teach you how to make almost anything around the house, such as parlor ornaments, make almost any- thing around the house. such as parlor ornaments, brackets, cements, Aeolian harps, and bird lime for eatching birds. Te No, 38. HOW TO BECOME YOUR OWN DOCTOR.— ‘A wonderful book, containing useful and practical in- formation in the treatment of ordinary diseases and ailments common to every family. Abounding in useful and effective recipes for general complaints. No. 40. HOW TO MAKE AND SET TRAPS.—Includ- ing hints on how to catch moles, weasels, otter, rats, aquirrely and birds. Also how to cure skins. Copiously® iustrated. For sale by all newsdealers, or will be sent to any + address on receipt of price, 10c. per copy, in money or stamps, by HARRY E. WOLFF, Publisher, Inc. , 166 West 23d Street New York City * s & Fame and Fortune Weekly — LATEST Issura — 10384 Tricking the Traders; or, A Wall Street Boy’s 1085 J Bee i Gut Or, Makd M 35 Jac erry’s Grit; or, Making a Man Of Hi ij 10386 A Gee, Shower; or, The Boy Banker Boe, Street. 1037 Making a Record; or, The Luck of a Worki . 1038 A Fight For Money; or, From School to Wari Street. 1039 Stranded Out West; or, The Boy Who Found a Boatman. 1040 Ben Bassford’s Luck; or, Working on Wall Street 1041 A Young ‘Gold King; or, The Treasure of the Secret Cave. 1042 Bound To Get Rich; or, How A Wall Street Boy Made Money. ; 1043 sigan Frank; The Boy who Became amous. 1044 A ae or, The Young Weazel of Wall Street. 1045 Plucky Bob; or, The Boy Who Won. Succegs, 1046 From Newsboy to Banker; or, Rob Lakes Hise in 1047 A G: be St bai Th olden Stake; or, @ Treasure of the I c 1048 A Grip On the Market; or, A Hot Time Th al Street. 1049 ere His Chance; or, From Ferry Boy to Cap- or, ain. 1050 A ar re Gold; or, The Young King of Wall Street, 1051 A Wizard for Luck; or Getting Ahead in the W. [. 1052 A serene at Stake; or, A Wall Street Masser none eal. 1053 His Last. Nickel; or, What It Did for Jack Rand. 1054 Nat Noble, the Little Broker; or, The Boy Who Started a Wall Street Panic. 1055 gee ta for Fame; or, The Gamest Boy in the é orld. ; 1056 The Young Money Magnate; or, The Wall Street Boy who Broke the Market. 1057 A Lucky Contract; or, The Boy Who Made a Raft of Money. 1058 A Big Risk; or, The Game That Won. : 9 1059 On Pirate’s Isle; or, The Treasure of the Seven Craters. J 1060 A Wall Street Mystery; or, The Boy Who Beat the Syndicate. : 1061. pas Hadley’s Mine; or, The Boy Gold Diggers of exico. 1062 A Boy Stock Broker; or, From Errand Boy to Millionaire. % 1068 Facing the World; or, A Poor Boy’s Fight for : Fortune, 1064 A Tip Worth a Million; or, How a Boy Worked n Wall Street. Tr 3 1065 Bays ae ye Boy; or, The Treasure of Skeleton sland. 1066 Just His Luck; or, Climbing the Ladder of Fame ~ and Fortune. 1067 Out With oung Barnum. 1068 Playing Hor Money; or, The Boy Trader of Wall street, 1069. The Boy Copper Miner; or, Ted Brown's Rise to ches. 1070 Tips Off es Tape; or, The Boy Who Startled Wall Street. , 1071 Striking It Rich; or, From Office Boy To Mer- chant Prine : e % 1072 Lucky in Wall Street; or, The Boy Who Trimmed _ the Brokers. 1073 In a Class by Himself; or, The Plucky Boy Who f Got to the Top. 1074 Bulling the Marke; or, The Messenger Who Worked a Corner, 1075 After the Big Blue Stone; or, The Treasure of the Jungle. 1076 Little Jay Perkins, the Broker; or, Shearing the Wall Street “lambs.” 7 1077 The ane Coal Baron; or, Five Years With he — ners, : Lets 1078 Coining Money; or, The Boy Plunger of Wali Street. 1079 Among the Tusk Hunters; or, The Boy Who Found a Diamond Mine. 1080 A Game Boy; or, From the Slums to Wall Street, 1081 A Bae Legacy; or, How It Made a Poor Boy ch. o For sale by all newsdealers, or will be gent te .. address on reeeipt of price, Se. por copy, in money or stamps, by ; ‘HARRY K. WOL¥H, PubMghes, Ime. ein 100 West 38d Strees Mow Xork Cita. r His Own Circus; or, The Success of a A ‘ a