l of his personal notes that were
presented; then he divined that these demands but indicated the way the
wind was going to blow, and that one of those terrific financial storms
he had heard about was soon to sweep over the United States. How
terrific this particular storm was to be he did not anticipate.
Nevertheless, he took every precaution in his power, and had no anxiety
about his weathering it out.

Money grew tighter. Beginning with the crash of several of the
greatest Eastern banking houses, the tightness spread, until every bank
in the country was calling in its credits. Daylight was caught, and
caught because of the fact that for the first time he had been playing
the legitimate business game. In the old days, such a panic, with the
accompanying extreme shrinkage of values, would have been a golden
harvest time for him. As it was, he watched the gamblers, who had
ridden the wave of prosperity and made preparation for the slump,
getting out from under and safely scurrying to cover or proceeding to
reap a double harvest. Nothing remained for him but to stand fast and
hold up.

He saw the situation clearly. When the banks demanded that he pay his
loans, he knew that the banks were in sore need of the money. But he
was in sorer need. And he knew that the banks did not want his
collateral which they held. It would do them no good. In such a
tumbling of values was no time to sell. His collateral was good, all
of it, eminently sound and worth while; yet it was worthless at such a
moment, when the one unceasing cry was money, money, money. Finding
him obdurate, the banks demanded more collateral, and as the money
pinch tightened they asked for two and even three times as much as had
been originally accepted. Sometimes Daylight yielded to these demands,
but more often not, and always battling fiercely.

He fought as with clay behind a crumbling wall. All portions of the
wall were menaced, and he went around constantly strengthening the
weakest parts with clay. This clay was money, and was applied, a sop
here and a sop there, as fast as it was needed, but only when it was
directly needed. The strength of his position lay in the Yerba Buena
Ferry Company, the Consolidated Street Railways, and the United Water
Company. Though people were no longer buying residence lots and factory
and business sites, they were compelled to ride on his cars and
ferry-boats and to consume his water. When all the financi