I very naturally felt
proud; and when I came away, they assembled at the roadside and gave me
the friendliest cheers.

"_Reporter:_ How about the petroleum?

"_Answer:_ Well, that is an unaccountable thing. I went into the
Continental Company, and nothing would do for the people but to go in
with me. I warned them--every man of them--but they would go in; so I
acted as their agent in procuring stock for them. There was not a share
of stock sold on any persuasion of mine. They were mad, they were wild,
for oil. You wouldn't have supposed there was half so much money in the
town as they dug out of their old stockings to invest in oil. I was
surprised, I assure you. Well, the Continental went up, and they had to
be angry with somebody; and although I held more stock than any of them,
they took a fancy that I had defrauded them, and so they came together
to wreak their impotent spite on me. That's the sum and substance of the
whole matter.

"_Reporter:_ And that is all you have to say?

"_Answer:_ Well, it covers the ground. Whether I shall proceed in law
against these scoundrels for maligning me, I have not determined. I
shall probably do nothing about it. The men are poor, and even if they
were rich, what good would it do me to get their money? I've got money
enough, and money with me can never offset a damage to character. When
they get cool and learn the facts, if they ever do learn them, they will
be sorry. They are not a bad people at heart, though I am ashamed, as
their old fellow-townsman, to say that they have acted like children in
this matter. There's a half-crazy, half-silly old doctor there by the
name of Radcliffe, and an old parson by the name of Snow, whom I have
helped to feed for years, who lead them into difficulty. But they're not
a bad people, now, and I am sorry for their sake that this thing has got
into the papers. It'll hurt the town. They have keen badly led,
inflamed over false information, and they have disgraced themselves.

"This closed the interview, and then Col. Belcher politely showed the
'Tattler' reporter over his palatial abode. 'Taken for all in all,' he
does not expect 'to look upon its like again.'

"None see it but to love it,
None name it but to praise.

"It was 'linked sweetness long drawn out,' and must have cost the
gallant Colonel a pile of stamps. Declining an invitation to visit the
stables,--for our new millionaire is a lover of horse-flesh, as well as
the narcot