darky
that our family ever owned renewed his acquaintance with Mars' Reed,
and was remembered in a way befitting the season. The recess for the
holidays was over on my reaching the capital, yet in the mean time a
crude outline of the proposed company was under consideration. On
the advice of our silent partner, who well knew that his business
associates were slightly out of their element at social functions and
might take alarm, all banquets were cut out, and we met in little
parties at cafes and swell barrooms. In the course of a few days all
the preliminaries were agreed on, and a general conference was called.

Neither my active partner nor myself was an orator, but we had coached
the silent member of the firm to act in our behalf. The Senator was a
flowery talker, and in prefacing his remarks he delved into antiquity,
mentioning the Aryan myth wherein the drifting clouds were supposed
to be the cows of the gods, driven to and from their feeding grounds.
Coming down to a later period, he referred to cattle being figured on
Egyptian monuments raised two thousand years before the Christian era,
and to the important part they were made to play in Greek and Roman
mythology. Referring to ancient biblical times, he dwelt upon the
pastoral existence of the old patriarchs, as they peacefully led their
herds from sheltered nook to pastures green. Passing down and through
the cycles of change from ancient to modern times, he touched upon the
relation of cattle to the food supply of the world, and finally the
object of the meeting was reached. In few and concise words, an
outline of the proposed company was set forth, its objects and
limitations. A pound of beef, it was asserted, was as staple as a loaf
of bread, the production of the one was as simple as the making of the
other, and both were looked upon equally as the staff of life. Other
remarks of a general nature followed. The capital was limited to one
million dollars, though double the capitalization could have been
readily placed at the first meeting. Satisfactory committees were
appointed on organization and other preliminary steps, and books
were opened for subscriptions. Deference was shown our firm, and
I subscribed the same amount as my partners, except that half my
subscription was made in the name of George Edwards, as I wanted him
on the executive committee if the company ever got beyond its present
embryo state. The trio of us taking only one hundred and fifty