t its foot,
for deposit at the poor-houses, insane asylums, States' prisons, and
suicides' graves, washed daily by that grim flood's ebb and flow--the
every-day people, I am sure, will not take in the blackness of this
transaction at this stage of my story, but before it is ended I will lay
this and many more of an equally hellish nature before them in such A B
C simplicity that all can read the portent as clearly as the Prophet
Daniel read the writing on the wall in the banquet-hall of Belshazzar.

When I consented to allow property which had cost only $39,000,000 to be
sold to the public for $75,000,000, it was under a pressure which it was
practically impossible for me to withstand. I do not think I use too
strong a word when I say "pressure." For three years I had been
advertising to the world the great merits of "Coppers," and for over a
year I had announced that when the public was given an opportunity to
participate in the consolidated "Coppers" it would be upon a basis most
carefully worked out: that the properties included in the first section
would surely be worth more than the price at which they would be offered
to the public, and that all the power, capital, and ability of "Standard
Oil" were behind the promises I made. I did this advertising openly and
in the frankest possible way, and in all of my announcements, whether
printed, oral, or otherwise, used the names of Henry H. Rogers, William
Rockefeller, James Stillman, the National City Bank of New York, and
"Standard Oil" as freely as I did my own, and in many ways led the
public to believe that the very rich Boston & Montana and Butte & Boston
companies were to be included in this section of "Coppers."

At that time my alliance with "Standard Oil" was close. A business
connection had developed into a strong personal relation between Mr.
Rogers and myself. We were engaged, together with William Rockefeller,
on a great financial deal which was based on certain conclusions I had
worked out in regard to the copper industry. These men were to me the
embodiment of success, success won in the fiercest commercial conflict
of the age. Their position at the helm of the greatest financial
institution in the world gave weight and importance to their judgment
and opinions. Nor had aught occurred between us to suggest they would
dare perpetrate the crimes they did. Besides all this, indeed an
integral part of it, my personal resources were completely involved in
the