es I repeat it
as it may be new to many. Mr. Mather kept the secret of the number of
ships he wished to construct absolutely to himself. He sent his plans
and specifications, each substantially a duplicate of the others, to
each of the firms, and asked each firm to bid on one or two ships as
the case might be. All naturally supposed that at most only two ships
were to be built, and each was extremely eager to get the work, or at
least one of the two vessels.

On the day before the contracts were to be let, all the bidders were
in Cleveland on the invitation of Mr. Mather. One by one they were
taken into his private office for special conference covering all the
details preparatory to the final bid. At the appointed hour the bids
were in. Deep was the interest on the part of all the gentlemen as to
who would be the lucky one to draw the prize. Mr. Mather's manner had
convinced each that somehow he himself must be the favoured bidder,
yet when he came to meet his competitors in the hotel lobby the beams
of satisfaction which plainly emanated from their faces also compelled
many heart searchings.

At last the crucial hour came, and at about the same moment each
gentleman received a little note from Mr. Mather, conveying to him the
tidings that to him had been awarded a contract sufficient to supply
his works to their utmost capacity. They all rushed with a common
impulse to the hotel lobby where they had been accustomed to meet,
each bent on displaying his note and commiserating his unsuccessful
rivals, only to discover that each had a contract for all he could do,
and that each had been actually bidding against nobody but himself.
Great was the hilarity which covered their chagrin when they met and
compared notes and looked into each others' faces. However, all were
happy and satisfied. But it may be said in passing that these amiable
gentlemen all united subsequently in one company, which has had a
highly satisfactory career, and that we paid a more uniform price for
our subsequent purchases of ships after the combination had been made.

A LANDSMAN FOR SHIP MANAGER

With these ships ordered, we were fairly at the beginning of the ore
enterprise. But we realized that we had to make some arrangement to
operate the ships, and we again turned to our competitor, Mr. Mather,
in the hope that he would add this to his cares. Unfortunately,
because of his obligations to others, he felt that this was
impractical. I asked Mr