and spent some time
there. At the same time his confession finally wrecked about nine other
eminent men, financiers all. A dispassionate examination of all the
evidence eight years later caused me to conclude without hesitation that
the man had been a victim of a cold-blooded conspiracy, the object of
which was to oust him from opportunities and to forestall him in methods
which would certainly have led to enormous wealth. He was apparently in
a position and with the brains to do many of the things which the ablest
and coldest financiers of his day had been and were doing, and they did
not want to be bothered with, would not brook, in short, his
approaching rivalry. Like the various usurpers of regal powers in
ancient days, they thought it best to kill a possible claimant to the
throne in his infancy.

But that youth of his! The long and devious path by which he had come!
Among the papers relating to the case and to a time when he could not
have been more than eighteen, and when he was beginning his career as a
book agent, was a letter written to his mother (August, 1892), which
read:

"MY DEAR PARENTS: Please answer me at once if I can have anything
of you, or something of you or nothing. Remember this is the first
and the last time in my life that I beg of you anything. You have
given to the other child not $15 but hundreds, and now when I, the
very youngest, ask of you, my parents, $15, are you going to be so
hard-hearted as to refuse me? Without these $15 it is left to me
to be without income for two or three weeks.

"For God's sake, remember what I ask of you, and send me at once
so that I should cease thinking of it. Leon, as I have told you,
will give me $10, $15 he has already paid for the contract, and
your $15 will make $25. Out of this I need $10 for a ticket and
$15 for two or three weeks' board and lodging.

"Please answer at once. Don't wait for a minute, and send me the
money or write me one word 'not.' Remember this only that if you
refuse me I will have nothing in common with you.

"Your son,
"----"

There was another bit of testimony on the part of one Henry Dom, a
baker, who for some strange reason came forward to identify him as some
one he had known years before in Williamsburgh, which read:

"I easily recognize them" (X---- and his sister) "from their
pictures in the newspapers. I worked for X----'s father, who wa