nsolidated crowd were "outwitted." Bear in mind that Clark, Ward & Co.
were among the "flyest" operators in Wall Street's juggle factories.
They asked no odds of any one in shuffling and dealing their cards, and
with them was the eminent Samuel Untermyer, surely the head of his class
of corporation counsellors, and himself a master in the fine arts of
copper financiering. On the conclusion of the deal, these gentlemen and
their partners in Utah assumed all the airs and graces they conceived
proper for associates of "Standard Oil," and at once enlarged their
hatbands and let out their waistcoats. Some of them, I believe, went so
far as to be measured for copper crowns. The stories they set afloat
about the richness of Utah, as proved by "Standard Oil's" determination
to have its 150,000 shares, would have made the constructor of Aladdin's
palace look to his laurels as a treasure-house creator, and the
stockholders of the corporation felt so good over their prospects that
in London and New York two large banquets were simultaneously given at
which the prospective millionaires tossed cable congratulations at one
another across the Atlantic and toasted in vintage champagnes the
brilliant promoters who had worked such wonders. At these entertainments
there was no question but that Utah was destined to be the foundation
company in the coming great copper consolidation.

With this roseate view Mr. Rogers did not entirely coincide. His
diagnosis of the situation had all that whichever-way-the-cat-jumps
frankness I had learned to look upon as characteristic of the man. He
said to me:

"Lawson, this is the situation: We are in absolute control of the Utah
property. If it were good we could do great things with it, but it's
bad, very bad; there is nothing out there but a bunch of ore which is
rich enough, but which cannot possibly last longer than six years, and
then--then there is nothing but a hole in the ground. Of course there is
a possibility of our finding other bunches, but with all the machinery
in our hands it looks to me as though we could play a very safe game. If
we find things that will make the stock valuable, we can keep the good
news buried until we shake the price down and get whatever we want. If
it is all bad, we can sell the stock and buy it in at big profits. I
think, on the whole, it is safe to call this deal completed and mark it
a success."

With this understanding we left it, and for some little time I p