ke pigs of lead
from a capsized boat. At once I was on the defensive. To prevent a wild
market panic during the few minutes consumed in getting telephone
connection with the State House, I had to purchase thousands of shares.
I knew that something disastrous had happened, but was not prepared for
the startling information that came over the wire: "The governor has
vetoed the Whitney bill with a savage message." My informant told me
that Towle and his men were making for head-quarters on a run. As I hung
up the receiver, the bell rang again. In a second my telephone with
Whitney's office was in the middle of a spasm.

"Have you got the news, Lawson?"

"Have I got it? The tape is screaming it.[9] Bay State and your stock
are racing for the bottom," I replied.

"What shall we do? This is a thunderbolt."

"Do?" I replied. "It's for you to say what to do. That's your end, not
mine, but from now until three o'clock one thing you must do, or
there'll be no further thinking on the subject--protect Dominion
Coal--have your brokers on the floor every second and tell them to buy
all that's offered. Beat a slow retreat if you must, but prevent a wild
break. Things at the Exchange are bad now. I'll take care of Bay State.
Look out for Dominion at once, and when you are through I must see
you--where?"

"At Young's in ten minutes."

"I'll be there."

Ten minutes later I was in Whitney's head-quarters. There pandemonium
reigned; all the cocksureness and bluster of the "machine" had vanished,
and it was a horde of clamorous and excited men I found struggling round
Towle and Whitney, who vainly sought to stay the panic. It was not
disappointment at the governor's message that had so stirred these
hardened practitioners of politics, but the terror of impending loss.
The majority of the Whitney band, lawyers, lieutenants, and
water-carriers had bought one stock or both on margin, and had assured
their friends it was safe to plunge to the limit.

On earth there is no more pitiable sight than the panic of a herd of
novice stock-speculators suddenly awakened to a realization of their
ruin. The ticker clicks a sort of death-watch as the merciless tape,
without hitch or let up, reels off destruction. To such desperate beings
the stock operator--the market-maker--is the straw to save them from
drowning, and to him they turn as the one possible source of aid and
hope. I only knew these men at sight's end, but they knew me and were
sure