and Mr. Rockefeller will admit I was right when I
told you that the public will respond to open and fair treatment when it
is deaf and blind to stock trickery and manipulation."

"I do hope you are right," returned Mr. Rogers, in a quiet, earnest,
I-pray-it-may-really-be-so tone, "but if it is from six to ten millions
we will all take off our hats to you."

This defined the expectation of the man who above all others knew most
of what had been done to mature and perfect the venture. I realized that
none of the parties to the enterprise anticipated an extraordinary
success, and though I felt more confident than the others, I was far
from cognizant of the actual feeling abroad among the people. Monday
morning I got an inkling of what was coming. My office in Boston was the
centre of a dense mass of people from morning until night, and round the
National City Bank in New York crowds were gathered watching the throng
fight its way through the doors. Inside, a long line of men and women
headed for the subscription desk stood laden with checks and currency,
patiently awaiting their turn, and every mail brought sacks of orders.
The big banking and brokerage offices in the financial districts of
Boston, Philadelphia, and New York were packed with customers asking to
be shown the way to secure as much as possible of this easy money, while
the wires buzzed with messages and bids from the far West and from
Europe. The excitement knew no bounds. In my rooms at the Waldorf I sat
beside the telephone getting rapid reports from my lieutenants. From 26
Broadway I learned of the progress of events at the bank, and was
impressed with the fact that the prevailing excitement and the strain
were beginning to affect even the nickel-steel equilibrium of Mr. Rogers
himself. Indeed, he made no attempt to disguise his uneasiness, and told
me that William Rockefeller was in much the same condition. It was the
first venture of size these two strong wheelmen of "Standard Oil" had
undertaken without the co-operation of John D. Rockefeller, and it
appeared that he was considerably worked up over the public hubbub, and
so opposed to the whole Amalgamated affair that nothing short of a great
success could justify his subordinates' temerity. However one looked at
the situation, it was evident that Henry H. Rogers and William
Rockefeller were playing for the stake of their lives, though how great
the stake was no one at that time guessed. Since then the