t all at once one winter's
day, and out of a clear sky, the papers were full of an enormous
financial crash of which he was the center. According to the newspapers,
the first and foremost of a chain of banks of which he was the head, to
say nothing of a bonding and realty company and some street-railway
project on Long Island, were all involved in the crash. Curiously,
although no derogatory mention had previously been made of him, the
articles and editorials were now most vituperative. Their venom was
especially noticeable. He was a get-rich-quick villain of the vilest
stripe; he had been juggling a bank, a trust company, an insurance
company and a land and street-railway speculative scheme as one would
glass balls. The money wherewith he gambled was not his. He had robbed
the poor, deceived them. Yet among all this and in the huge articles
which appeared the very first day, I noted one paragraph which stuck in
my mind, for I was naturally interested in all this and in him. It read:

"Wall Street heard yesterday that Superintendent H---- got his
first information concerning the state in which X----'s affairs
were from quarters where resentment may have been cherished
because of his activity in the Long Island Traction field. This is
one of the Street's 'clover patches' and the success which the
newcomer seemed to be meeting did not provoke great pleasure."

Another item read:

"A hitch in a deal that was to have transferred the South Shore to
the New York and Queens County System, owned by the Long Island
Railroad, at a profit of almost $2,000,000 to X----, was the cause
of all the trouble. Very active displeasure on the part of certain
powers in Wall Street blocked, it is said, the closing of the deal
for the railroad. They did not want him in this field, and were
powerful enough to prevent it. At the same time pressure from
other directions was brought to bear on him. The clearing-house
refused to clear for his banks. X---- was in need of cash, but
still insisting on a high rate of remuneration for the road which
he had developed to an important point. Their sinister influences
entered and blocked the transfer until it was no longer possible
for him to hold out."

Along with these two items was a vast mass of data, really pages,
showing how, when, where he had done thus and so, "juggled accounts"
between one bank and another, all of which