ze
for whom the various organizations of the "System" competed valorously.
There he was, in three places--James H. Eckels, President of the
Commercial Bank of Chicago, 6,000, 2,000, and 2,000 shares--or a million
dollars altogether.

Another name caught my eye: "Bay State Gas Co., J. Edward Addicks,
20,000 shares"--two millions of dollars. I leaned back and laughed as I
thought of this wary old fox, with the bruises and scars of the
"System's" hopper thick all over his body, dutifully bringing his
contribution to his old enemy, Rogers. And Rogers, disdainful and
contemptuous of the man, found his $400,000 good. This, I said to
myself, is a case of spider eat spider with a vengeance; and I wondered
if experience is really as good a teacher as the text-book says.

Hour after hour I pondered over that list, "sizing up" each subscriber
and questioning what his financial condition might be. At last I dropped
it, swearing to myself to use every effort to protect these thousands of
people who had ventured so much money on the strength of my pledges.

Two days later the allotments were officially announced; in a few days
more the receipts were issued and Amalgamated was fairly out in the
world on its own feet. It was not listed on any of the exchanges yet,
but it was very much in the mouths of people, and in the papers. And
every day grew the ominous feeling that something was wrong. It was a
contradictory situation and no one could put a finger on the trouble.
Rumors one heard, but no definite derogatory statements. The truth was
that those who knew what was wrong had good reasons for saying nothing,
while all who had to do with stock affairs and surmised the evil, were
themselves loaded up with the stock and hoping against hope that our
promises of great profits would yet be fulfilled.

It was my part to keep up these anticipations and by hook or crook
prevent Rogers and Rockefeller from unloading. I bought and bought to
steady the market when no one else apparently would buy; and when I
found others whom I could induce to venture, I had them relieve those
who were faltering and who must sell. When Mr. Rogers took me to task, I
invented all manner of excuses to account for my tardiness in creating a
market on which he could unload his holdings. He listened impatiently
and incredulously, and I felt that sooner or later he would take the bit
in his teeth.

In spite of my efforts the price of Amalgamated dropped and dropped