The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 27, 1903, Page 7

(Copyright HERE have been 1008) na. e gift of epi- poken leaders who grammar as of man- ders to whom the stock market of the tape, was a means to ting, steel-nerved impulsive, excitable leaders who were church pillars 4 total abstainers, and leaders whose ker and whose most ns were carried on fur- f & drunken debauch. But = breatnless history of leader the the b very ver before a lead- ace of statis- mere “I am buy- hasers for & ving prospectuses Mdavits and all re been a numbered by es t sald the public was demic of speculative lonel Treadwell was rator “backed” by a test fortunes in Amer- a skiliful “manip- sheer brute he made ks advance with which he was a se, the pub- etocks that are ny other explana- Wall street came what it was that the e speculative public new ce alone with open—it was nd the clerks and custom- passed to e great lead- shrewd, little, seemed to smile at ered what new “deal” And then they L and purses ck—mere- they might L as the: rator sat on a revol sk. He had turned hi ulation of correspond- rotated from right to . The tips of sghort man—missed nch or two, and he contentedly. A ticker ly, and from time to eadwell ceased his rocking and his foot-sewinging and glanced jovially at the ape. F window he could see & Mississippi ork summer sk rket was goin planned king, im; e a meditative man” schem- r be cn the! t, Josiah 7 heé chubby. out- he said, very when he was and I was beaten stic majority. I father m twenty-odd wrong and took 4 did his best for you. go to Congress you're I read in the papers thought er for years. they had chuck- the young man boldly, k your advice.” don’t ask it twice. Be careful now.” “Do you mean that they get so rich fol- lowing it that they dop’t have to come again? > “You are a politiclan, young man. You'll wake up and find yourself in Congress some fine day, unless your father goes back to newspaper work and writes some editorials in your favor.” The boy had a pleasant colonel thought “I have saved up some money, colonel “Keep it. That’s the best advice I can give you. Go away instantly. Great Scot! ngster, you are in Wall street now. “Oh, I-T'm safe enough in this office, 1 guess,” retorted Carey. The famous leader of the stock market looked at him solemnly. The boy re- turned the look imperturbabl Then sl Treadwell laughed, and Carey »d back at him. at = doing to keep out of ed Treadwell. clerk in the office of the Federal Pump Company, third floor, upstairs. I ved some money and I want to know what to do with it. I read an ar- ticle in the Sun the other day. It sald you had advised people to put their sav ings into , and how well smile, the re you te prison “I'm a ago. Trolley has gone y points since then good the advice ald a young man should do something with his savings and let them lie id The young man looked straight into the little, twinkling, kindly eyes of the leader f the stock market “How much money hs 1 have $210, ve you? replied the lad, with an uncertain smile. He felt proud of the magnitude of his savings in his own room; in this office he felt a bit ashamed of their insignificance. “Dear m said tne millionaire specu- or, very seriously, “that's a good deal of money. It's a blamed sight more than I had when I started in business. Got it with you?” Y, sir. Well, I'll introduce you to my brother Wilson, who has charge of our customers. Come in, John.” “John” came right in. His other name was Melle He was a slim, quiet-looking man of about five-and-fifty. His enemies eaid that he had made $1,000,000 for every year he had lived and had kept it. “8Sit down, John,” sald Colonel Tread- well, shaking hands with Mr. Mellen, “I'll be back in a minute.” At the door he shook hands with two more visitors—a tall, ruddy-Taced, white- haired and white-whiskered man, Milton Steers, after-dinner speaker and self-con- fessed wit, and incidentally president of & rallroad srstem; also D. M. Ogden, who looked like an English clergyman and was the owner of the huge Ogden building in Wall street. They had come to discuss the advisabllity of a new deal in “Trol- le; They represented, they and their assoclates, more than $500,000,000. But Colonel Treadwell made them wait while he escorted his new acquaintance to his brother’s room. THE SUNDAY CALL, “Wilse,” he Tve new customer, Carey. Wilson P. Treadwell smiled pleasantly. He was a tall, slender man with a serious look. The firm did not desire new ac- counts, for there was already more bu ness than could be handled. They were the busiest and the best-known stock brokers in the United State: But the colonel’s friends were welcome always. “I'm very glad to meet Mr. Carey, said Wilson Treadwell. The firm had some very youthful customers, but their means brought you & were in inverse ratio to their years. “I think,” sald the colonel, “that we had better buy some Easton and Allen- town for him.” He was smiling; he gene! ally was. Moreover he was thinking of his brother’s mistaken impression of the new customer. “That is a good idea,” assented Wilson. “You ought to put in your order at once. tock Is going up very fast, Mr. 24 “Well, young man, give him your mar- gin and let him buy you as much as he thinks best,” sald the colonel. “Five thousand shares,” suggested Wil- son Treadwell, Colonel Treadwell chuckled. “Five thousand? A paltry five?” ““Well, 50,000 if he wants them, and you guarantee his account,” sald his brother with a smile. “I guess,” sald the leader of the stock market, slowly, “that you had better be- gin with 100 shares. Then Wilson, who knew his brother thoroughly, said “Oh!” and smiled and gave an order to a clerk to buy 100 shares of Easton and Allentown Rallroad stock at the “market” or prevailing price for Mr. Carey, and took the boy’'s $I10 with the utmost gravity. The smallest Stock Exchange house would not accept such a pitiful accou adwell & Co., being the largest, would and did. onel shook hands with young hose father bad once edited a per, but who ever told him to back lentown stock was the of the market that week and the next. Ten days after *C ad bought his hundred shar sold at 106 The ng man went into Treadwell & Co. on the elev: knew be had made a great “feature’ al of money hought of hav- w w man say anoth price. Carey figured stock to sell at 115 he would make nearly & thousand dollars more. “There is no use of being a blamed " the man continued, with picturesque but where in blazes is ‘the g awaj money your that m Limit throwin crowd of men, all of Treadwell & Co., ex- orters, who had erview with >k market. Aper rey g the ne the cepti called £ the fam There were tv an ex-Congressman, a of men who had inherited fortunes and were doubling them in the stock market, three or four gray-haired, shrewd-faced ¢ whose names appeared many tim financial pages of newspapers; a baker's dozen of prominent municipal polsticians, & well-known Western ralirond president, with a ruddy face and a snow-white beard; two famous physictans, the vice- president of a life insurance company, & half score of wholesals merchants and & low-voiced, insignificant little man with a quiet, almost apologetio look, ‘who sel- dom spoke and never smiled, but who, next to the colonel himself, was beyond question the heaviest plunger in the office. The colonel came out of his office to go to his brother's room, where, seated about & long polished table, were several direct- ors of the Suburban Trolley Company— men to whom the newspapers always re- ferred not by name, but as “prominent insiders.” It was a very important gath- ering. It involved no less than & final un derstanding in regard to the great “trol- ley pool,” whose operations later on were to become historical in Wall street. It was, as one of the speculators outside put t. “a case of show down"—the cash re- sources available for pool purposes, each man announcing the proportion of the 100,000 shares for which be was willing to ut up. pCuey was standing by the door of Wil- son Treadwell's office. He 4id not feel al- together comfortable among so many eld- erly and obviously very rich men. His difidence was the saving of him, for as the colonel passed he paused and sald ia a low voles, “Got your stock yet?” The customers in the corridor, men whe by the colonel's advice were ‘“carrying’ from 500 to 10,000 res each of Easton and Allentown, leaned forward eagerly. All were men who north of Wall street would not have stooped to listen to oth- ers’ conversations if their lives depended on it. In a broker’s office such notions were absurd, almost wicked. Certainly at that moment twenty pairs of eyes were looking fixedly at the great leader of the stock market and the young clerk. The colonel felt this Intuitively. He confirmed it with a quick glance of his sharp little eyes. He had not sold all his Faston and Allentown, but was disposing of it just as fast as the market ‘would take it. It was not likaly that the stock would go much higher. ' Wall street, ever loth to belleve well of afty stock operator, used to comment sneeringly on the fact that the world heard much about the “Treadwell buying,” but never.s word about the “Treadwell selling.” If the colonel gave & hint to the cus- tomers thers would be an avalanche of selling orders that would make the price of the stock break sharply, and this would not benefit any one. He had ad- vised them to buy the stock at %0 and % —it was 106 now. He had more than done his duty. If they did mot sell out, in the hope of making more, it was their cwm lookout. But there was the boy with the 10 shares, the pleasant little clerk from up the State, who had brought In his entire fortune, his accumulated savings of $ He was a stranger to Wall street, Bud supposing he should tell that he had been advised to sell There would be the deuce to pay! The colonel took chances. Out of one corner of his mouth, so that he did net even turn his head toward the boy and so that the watching customers could not suspect what he was doing. he shot a quick whisper—a lobsided, but philan- thopic affair—at him: “Look at the color . boy! Take your profits and say nothing!” And he walked inte the room where the Suburban Trolley magnates awaited him impatiently. Carey, thrilled but taciturn, gave his order to sell his Easton and Allentown, unsuspected by the mob. Tt him at 105% Deducing commi; put $1050 in the clerk’'s pocket. And the stock went a little higher and then d#”ined slowly to about 9. The customers all made a great deal of mon- ey as it was, but not as much as they would ve “taken out” of the Easton and Allentown “deal” if they had over- heard that one of Colonel Treadwell's many whispers—lobsided but philanthrop- ic affays