ne of the builders of the
Northwest.

His plan to sell dressed beef along the railroad gave way to a project
to sell it at the wholesale stalls in Chicago. That failed. Thereupon,
he evolved an elaborate and daring scheme to sell it direct to
consumers in New York and other Eastern seaboard cities.

"The Marquis actually opened his stores in Fulton Market," said
Packard afterward, "and there sold range beef killed in Medora. Of
course his project failed. It was shot full of fatal objections. But
with his magnetic personality, with his verbalistic short-jumps over
every objection, with every newspaper and magazine of the land an
enthusiastic volunteer in de Mores propaganda, and with the halo of
the von Hoffman millions surrounding him and all his deeds, bankers
and business men fell into line at the tail of the de Mores chariot.
We of the Bad Lands were the first to see the fatal weaknesses in his
plans, but we were believers, partly because the Marquis seemed to
overcome every difficulty by the use of money, and mainly because we
wanted to believe."

Dozens of shops were in fact opened by the Marquis, but the public
refused to trade, even at a saving, in stores where only one kind of
meat could be bought. The Marquis had all the figures in the world to
prove that the public should buy; but human nature thwarted him.

The plan failed, but the Marquis, with his customary dexterity,
obscured the failure with a new and even more engaging dream.

"Our company is to be merged into another very large cattle
syndicate," he said in March, 1887, "and having abundant capital, we
propose to buy up every retail dealer in this city either by cash or
stock."

The National Consumers' Company was the name of the new organization.

There was a fine mixture of altruism and business in the first
prospectus which the Marquis's new company issued:

Crushed, as so many others, by monopoly, we have been
looking for the means of resisting it by uniting in a
practical way with those who, like ourselves, try to make
their future by their work. This has led to the organization
of this company. The name of the company shows its aims. It
must be worked by and for the people.

That sounded very impressive, and the newspapers began to speak of the
Marquis as a true friend of the people. Meanwhile, the _Bad Lands
Cowboy_ announced:

Marquis de Mores has completed contracts with the French
Governmen