ave read
of him, an angel of purity compared with any one of a score of the
'System's' votaries I could name." The man left me, but soon after
returned. He said: "It makes no difference whether what you say is true
or not, I can now secure $10,000 for the affidavit." When this kind of
fighting is brought to my attention, I am strongly tempted to let down
the bars.

He relates, with all the graphic art of a novelist, a
wellnigh incredible story. Chicanery, fraud, blackmail,
bribery of a legislature and of a judge, systematic pillage
of investors and of the American public.

The details I have narrated are facts, and I will prove them to be facts
so all may know them.

In delving into Lawson's career--a most unwelcome task--the
writer has detected a continuity of purpose, a fixity of
design, a uniformity of method pervading his every public
act. What he is doing now, _i.e._, exposing somebody or
something, he has repeatedly done on a lesser scale in the
past; not from worthy motives, but for the sole purpose of
illegitimate pecuniary gain.

Yes, throughout my entire life I have pursued with a continuity of
purpose that class I am pursuing to-day--the class that has taken from
the people their earnings by fraud or trick. If other proof were needed
that the men I am after have lost the discretion which made them great
in the world, these foolish yarns supply it. It is well known that no
man ever gets near to "Standard Oil" in business or socially until their
detectives have dissected his career from the cradle up. I spent years
in close business relations with these men, so close that, as I will
show later, I acted as the agent not only of Rogers and Rockefeller, but
of the Amalgamated Company and the City Bank.

He is at present engaged in attacking the "System," as he
calls it, and the banks and the insurance companies and Wall
Street and American finance, by circulars, by
advertisements, and through the stock-market, as in the past
he has repeatedly attacked other corporations and
individuals until he obtained what he was seeking, and in
every recorded instance that thing was unearned dollars.

In the past I have repeatedly attacked individuals and corporations
until I obtained what I sought in every case--justice for the defrauded
and punishment for those who had cheated them, and in no case dollars or
their equivalent.