"How many have you brought me to-day, my merry men?"
he would say as he weighed the sacks in his mighty fingers. "Are they
large and juicy?" How they came or whence, he cared not at all; the
screams of the unfortunates whose hearts were torn from their breasts he
neither heard nor thought of; hearts he must have, and if people were
killed, so much the worse for them. But the ogre _ate_ all the human
hearts his vassals gathered for him; he lived on them and grew greater
and lustier, for they were the food his great frame required for its
sustenance, and he never had all he really wanted.

"Standard Oil" in our life to-day plays the role of this mythological
giant, forcing its tribute of dollars from the people, indifferent to
the blood and tears in which they are soaked, oblivious of the cries of
the victims from whom they have been dragged; but, unlike the giant,
_"Standard Oil" does not need this tribute to sustain its life, nor to
make richer its blood_.

But to return to Mr. Rogers, who triumphantly proceeded with his plot:

"Let me show you, Lawson, how you have overlooked the best part of the
copper business. We have found that for years Lewisohn Brothers have had
a double-clamped and riveted contract with at least half the best
producing mines in the country to sell their output, and they have grown
very wealthy. As near as we can make it, they have made at least fifty
millions in one way or another in the last ten or twelve years. First,
they have had a big profit as their commission for selling; next, big
interest out of the advances they make to companies while their output
is being sold; now, they actually control the copper market of the
world. Think of it, Lawson, for a few seconds, and the possibilities
will loom up to you. You can buy or sell any number of millions of
pounds in futures or actual deliveries. Suppose a man controlling the
selling of three or four hundred million pounds a year should knock the
price to, say, ten cents, sell to himself the year's output of all the
mines he controls and then lift the price to, say, twenty cents. He
would have a sure profit, with absolutely no risk, of thirty to forty
millions of dollars. If he should sell the next year's output short at
twenty and drop the price back to ten, he would have another thirty or
forty millions. Wouldn't he? Then if, before he broke the price, he sold
copper mining stocks short, and if, before advancing the price, he
covered and loa