A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

The Romance and Tragedy

W >> William Ingraham Russell >> The Romance and Tragedy




It was not long before I had trained my horses to drive either
tandem, four-in-hand, or three abreast, and with an assortment of
various styles of carriages my equipment was complete.

From the Paris-built drag carrying eight passengers besides my two
men, down to the pony cart, everything was of the best. All was in
good taste and expense had not been considered.

My combination carriage-house and stable was architecturally a
very handsome building, and in its interior every detail, useful
and ornamental, had received careful attention. The building cost
me about seven thousand dollars, but judging from its appearance
and size my neighbors thought that my investment was larger. As
it approached completion I suggested to my wife the idea of giving
a barn-dance, something unique in the annals of Knollwood. We
immediately went into a committee of two on plans and scope and as
a result evolved an evening of surprise and delight for our friends.

The invitations, engraved in usual note-sheet form, had on the upper
half of the page a fine engraving of the front of the stable, and
beneath in old English, "Come and dance in the barn." We received
our guests in the hall and drawing-room, fragrant with blooming
plants. From a rear piazza a carpeted and canvas-enclosed platform
extended across the lawn to the carriage-house. The floor had
been covered with canvas for the dancers. Brilliantly illuminated,
in addition to the permanent decorations, a life-sized jockey in
bronze bas-relief and numerous coaching pictures, was the work of
the florist. The large orchestra was upstairs surrounding the open
carriage trap, which was concealed from below by masses of smilax.
The harness-room was made attractive with rugs and easy chairs for
the card players.

[Illustration: "OFF FOR A DRIVE"]

In the stable each of the six stalls had been converted into a cozy
nook where soft light from shaded lamps fell on rugs and draperies.
On each stall post was a massive floral horseshoe. The orders of
dancing, besides the usual gold-embossed monogram, bore an engraving
of a tandem cart with high-stepping horses and driver snapping his
long whip. Attached to each was a sterling silver pencil representing
the foreleg of a horse in action, the shoe being of gold. Supper
was served in the dining-room from a table decorated in keeping with
the event, the center-piece being a model in sugar of the tandem
design on the order of dancing.

The affair was a great success in every way, and the following
evening we allowed our colored servants to entertain their friends
at the stable. With a few of our neighbors we witnessed the "cake-walk"
and found much fun in it. The next day the horses were in possession.




CHAPTER XXVI

AN IMPORTER AND DEALER



While during 1888 we were nominally brokers, a considerable portion
of our business was actually in the nature of that of an importer
and dealer. This position was really forced on us by circumstances
beyond our control. To protect ourselves from loss in our sales
for London account we had to take from time to time an interest in
the market and this made us dealers. To complete our sales we were
compelled to import the material and thus became importers.

With the opening of the year 1889 we found ourselves possessed of
fairly large capital and a firmly established credit with bankers.
These facts, combined with the best facilities for doing the
business, decided us to eliminate the brokerage phase entirely,
except in our transactions with our speculative clients. From that
time on we bought and sold for our own account.

We had a very large trade with consumers throughout the country,
and we knew we had but to say the word to increase this by calling
back all the small buyers with whom we parted company in 1884. As
brokers we did not care for that small trade, but as dealers it
was an entirely different proposition.

Of course as soon as the New York dealers learned of our new
departure they would give us sharp and active competition for the
orders, but we felt so strong in our position we did not fear it.

We made no public announcement, but quietly bought the necessary
spot stock in the cheapest market, and as soon as we were ready,
when the orders came to us, filled them ourselves instead of passing
them on to the dealers as heretofore.

Only a few days passed before the dealers, missing the orders they
had been accustomed to receive through our hands, commenced to
investigate. When questioned we told them frankly what we were doing.
At first, argument was used to dissuade us from such a policy, but
when we were told we had no right to the business I replied that
we were not dealing in a patented article and I knew of no law to
prevent us from trading as dealers if we so desired.

That ended the argument, and men who for years had been in close
business intimacy and friendship with us, became our enemies.

I knew well what that meant. Henceforth I was to get my share of
the personal animosity that in this trade superseded the spirit of
fair competition.

Those men held up before the world as models of Christian piety, who
never missed a church service, whose names appeared in the papers
as subscribers to charitable and mission funds; those Sunday-school
teachers who would not have in their homes on the Sabbath day
a newspaper, who would not take a glass of wine at dinner because
of the example to their boys, and yet in their efforts to injure a
business rival never hesitated to break the Ninth Commandment--not
in words, oh no, too cautious for that, nothing that one could
put his finger on; but the shrug of the shoulder, the significant
raising of the eye-brows, the insinuation, the little hint to
unsettle confidence. Bah! on such Christianity.

And now those men were to train their guns on me.

I had been twenty years in the trade and knew how others had fared.
I grant, in many cases, it was tit-for-tat, the man injured had
done his best to injured others. With _few exceptions_ the entire
trade were "birds of a feather."

We had not long to wait for the first shot and it fell very flat,
the honors in that engagement all being with us.

A broker had offered us a parcel for future delivery at a price he
thought cheap and we accepted it. Later he called and said when
he gave up our name as the buyer, the seller declined to confirm
unless we would deposit with him, the seller, five thousand dollars
as security.

This concern knew we were perfectly responsible, but took this
method of discrediting us, expecting that the broker would help
the matter on by gossiping through the trade about it.

We heard his story and then said to him, "Go back and say to your
principal that we will not deposit with him one dollar; but if he
will deposit with any trust company five thousand dollars, we will
deposit twenty-five thousand against it."

The seller declined to deposit anything and the sale was cancelled.
The broker did gossip about it, but as his account of the incident
was correct, it added to our prestige.

Every now and then we would hear of something that one or another
of our competitors had intimated to our discredit, but treating
all such rumors with silent contempt, we kept up the even tenor of
our way and closed the year with a profit of seventy-two thousand
dollars.




CHAPTER XXVII

SAD HEARTS AT KNOLLWOOD



The spring of 1890 brought with it two great sorrows. Following
closely on the death of my beloved mother came the death at "Sunnyside"
of Frank Slater. The latter was unexpected in its suddenness and a
terrible shock to all his friends. I had become so deeply attached
to Frank that he seemed like a dear brother and my grief was most
profound.

The day after his death, Mr. Pell, Mrs. Slater's father, asked me
to represent the family in the settlement of the business affairs.
There was no will and there were many complications.

Mr. Pell, entirely without reason, I thought, had not the fullest
confidence in Frank's partner, Mr. Wood. He did not believe he
would be any too liberal to the estate in the settlement of the
firm's affairs. It was in compliance with Mr. Pell's earnest request
that I took charge and my doing so was entirely acceptable to Mr.
Wood.

Although I regret the test of my reader's patience, it is essential
to my defense in certain matters to be related in later chapters,
that the complications and settlement of this estate should be set
forth. In reading these pages I beg that the footnote on page 112
may be remembered.

The business of Wood and Slater for several years had been the
acquiring and holding of certain corporate properties, some of which
the firm managed. With the exception of one property, a recent
acquisition, the interest of each partner was defined by the
individual holdings of stock. In the one property referred to the
interest was equal but the stock had not been issued.

At the time of Mr. Slater's death he had a joint liability on the
firm account in certain notes which had been discounted at the
firm's bank, and also in a loan made to the firm by the Standard
Oil Company. His individual liabilities were nearly seventy-five
thousand dollars. Only a few of these need be specified.

For several years he had profitable business relations with me and
carried an account in our office, drawing on it at his convenience.
At the time of his death this account was overdrawn nine thousand
dollars. In addition our name was on his paper, falling due after
his death, to the extent of eleven thousand dollars. Another
liability was a note for forty-seven hundred dollars discounted by
a Pennsylvania banker, a personal friend. There was also an agreement
to refund to a friend under certain conditions ten thousand dollars
which he had invested in a manufacturing plant in Connecticut which
Mr. Slater was backing.

The assets consisted almost entirely of the interest in the
corporate properties which the firm had acquired and stock in the
Connecticut concern. There was also a library which realized, when
sold at auction, about five thousand dollars.

The real estate was in Mrs. Slater's name and belonged to her.

In the most valuable properties of the firm Wood & Slater owned but
two-thirds interest, the remaining third being held by the original
owner, a Mr. Mallison.

This gentleman, possessed of considerable means, was a creditor
of the estate to the amount of about sixteen thousand dollars. I
found that he was disposed to buy the estate's interest in these
properties and finally sold it to him for one hundred thousand
dollars. An additional consideration was the securing through him
an investment of half the amount, for a period of ten years at a
guaranteed return of ten per cent per annum.

The Connecticut investment looked to me most unpromising. With
extensive advertising it might be made a profitable business but
there was no money for this; on the other hand, additional capital
was needed at once to keep the concern alive. The note held by the
Pennsylvania banker had been issued for the benefit of this business
and must be paid. Unless new capital was found to keep the concern
going, the ten thousand dollars guaranteed by Mr. Slater must be
refunded at once. In other words, if the business was abandoned
the estate would be immediately depleted to the extent of fourteen
thousand seven hundred dollars.

A meeting was held at my office at which were present all the
parties interested and also Mr. Wood. After a general discussion,
in which Mr. Wood took part and expressed great confidence in the
future success of the business, the gentleman who had invested
the ten thousand dollars made a proposition that if Mr. Slater's
friends would go in, for every dollar they subscribed he would
subscribe two. If they would not do this, then he would call upon
the estate to return him the ten thousand dollars.

Taking Mr. Wood aside, I said, "Charley, personally I don't like
the investment, but to save the estate, if you will join me, I will
make it." His reply was, "Walter, I cannot. If I could I would,
for I believe it is a good thing, but I cannot go into any outside
investment at present."

My decision as to my course was made before I had spoken to him,
but I thought I would offer him a chance to share that investment
with me, after telling him my poor opinion of it.

My heart was heavy with sorrow for the loss of my friend and for
his family I felt the deepest sympathy. I believed then, as I
believe to-day, that what I did was no more than he would have done
for my loved ones under similar circumstances.

In that Connecticut concern I invested in all about five thousand
dollars, which proved, as I thought very probably it would, practically
a total loss. I waived my claim for nine thousand dollars on that
overdrawn account and I personally paid those notes for eleven
thousand dollars, one in June and the other in August following
the death of my friend.

The only remaining asset to be disposed of was the recently acquired
property for which stock had not been issued.

Mr. Wood was personally managing this, and he represented to me
that it was in bad shape and that if anything was made out of it,
it would be by his efforts and he did not want an estate for a
partner.

He proposed to offset the estate's interest against the liability
on the firm note held by the bank. I am not sure what that amounted
to and have not the data at hand to ascertain, but think it was
under five thousand dollars.

This property is now of great value and has, I believe, made Mr.
Wood, who still owns it, a rich man.

At the time, I thought his proposition a fair one, though in later
years, Mr. Allison, a good judge of the value of such properties,
told me that he "never thought Wood treated Mrs. Slater just right
in that matter."

When I made the sale to Mallison it left Wood a minority stockholder,
which position he did not fancy. He tried to sell out to Mallison.
These men had a mutual dislike for each other and Wood after repeated
efforts found they could not agree on terms.

Then he asked me to make the sale for him. He was prepared to take
and expected to get less than the estate had received. Technically
it was worth less, for the buyer already had control. I succeeded
in making the sale at the same price, one hundred thousand dollars.

On my way home that day I stopped at Wood's house to tell him what
I had done. He was not at home and I saw his wife. I told her of
the sale and asked her to tell her husband. She exclaimed, "Oh,
Walter! What a friend you've been." That was in 1890. This is 1904.




CHAPTER XXVIII

NEW FACES



A snap of the whip, horses prancing, and with the notes of the horn
waking the echoes in the hills, we drove out from "Redstone" just
after luncheon and commenced the first stage of our sixty-mile
drive to Normandie-by-the-Sea, where we were to spend the rest of
the summer.

This was on a Friday, about the middle of July, 1890. On the drag
my wife sat beside me on the box-seat; behind us were the six
children and maid, and in the rumble, my two men. It was a very
jolly party as we went bowling along over the finest roads in the
State, and we minded not the gentle rain falling steadily. All
were dry in mackintoshes and under the leather aprons, and passing
through one village after another we were of the opinion that there
is nothing quite so inspiring as driving through the country behind
four spirited horses in any kind of weather. Just at half-past five
we crossed the bridge over the Raritan and drove into New Brunswick,
where we were to stop over night.

After a good night's rest and an eight o'clock breakfast we were
off again.

The rain had ceased and the day was bright and beautiful, with no
dust to mar the pleasure of our drive. On through Old Bridge and
Mattawan to Keyport, where we stopped for luncheon. Then away on
the last stage of the delightful journey. Stopping at one of the
toll-gates to water the horses the woman in charge looked up at
the merry lot of children, and then turning to my wife asked, "Are
those children _all_ yours"? With a laugh I said "guilty," and
away we went. The hands of the clock on the dashboard were at six
as we drove up to the hotel, sharp on time.

We soon became acquainted with many of the guests at the hotel, who
were a pleasant lot of people, and were particularly attracted to
a Mr. and Mrs. Edward Banford of New York.

Ned Banford, a man then about thirty years of age, good looking,
genial, and clever, was a manufacturing jeweler and is still in
that business. His wife, a very charming woman, is now prominent
in golfing circles. Before the season was over, we numbered the
Banfords amongst our intimate friends. Ned and I were companions
on our daily trips to and from the city, and before I had known
him more than a few weeks he had voluntarily told me a good deal
about his business affairs.

He said his own capital was very small and a wealthy friend, a Mr.
Viedler, was backing him, and at that time had ten thousand dollars
in his business. He enlarged on the liberality of this friend,
saying, amongst other things, that when he went to him for money
he never asked anything further than, "How much do you want, Ned"?
and then writing a cheque would hand it to him.

He also told me that his business was very profitable and the only
disadvantage he labored under was Mr. Viedler's frequent absence.

This sort of talk went on daily until one morning he told me that
the day previous he had an offer of a lot of precious stones for
five thousand dollars which he could have turned over inside of
thirty days with a profit of two thousand dollars, but had to pass
it because Mr. Viedler was out of town.

The same spirit which always moved me to do what I could to help
everybody I knew led me to say to him, "Ned, I do not want to put
any money in a sinking fund for a long pull, as I may have use
for all my capital in my own business; but any time you want five
thousand dollars for thirty days, I will be glad to let you have
it."

He wanted it very soon. In a few days I loaned him five thousand
dollars, and after that, until September, 1893, there was no time
he did not owe me from five thousand to fifteen thousand dollars.

After we returned to "Redstone" we had the Banfords out for a visit,
and a little later visited them in New York. They gave a dinner
in our honor, and those amongst the guests who become prominent in
this narrative hereafter were Mr. and Mrs. Albert Caine, Mr. and
Mrs. William Curtice, and Mr. and Mrs. George Todd.

This dinner was the commencement of a long and intimate friendship
with all of those I have named. Very many were the good times we
had together, visits back and forth, dinners, driving trips, theatre
parties, trips to Atlantic City, Lakewood, and other resorts, to
Princeton and New Haven for the college games--nothing that promised
a good time was allowed to get by us.

The birthdays and wedding anniversaries of all were duly celebrated,
and gifts interchanged at Christmas between both parents and
children. It was indeed a happy, joyous circle of friends.

My business affairs continued to prosper, and for my second year,
as an importer and dealer, my books showed a profit of sixty-eight
thousand dollars.



CHAPTER XXIX

A SHORT YEAR AND A MERRY ONE



As memory carries me back to 1891, it seems as if it would have
been impossible to crowd into a period of twelve months more social
pleasures and jolly good times than we had in that year.

In the social life at Knollwood we had ceased to be active. We
kept up and enjoyed our intimate friendship, now of more than ten
years' duration, with our immediate neighbors; but the personnel
of the Park had changed in recent years and with many of the new
residents we were not congenial, though on pleasant terms with all.

There was still a good deal of dining, card parties, and entertainments
at the Casino, in which we participated, but it was with our New
York friends that most of our social life was passed. The circle
there had been enlarged by the addition of many pleasant people,
although the close intimacy still rested where it had started,
with, however, the addition of Mr. and Mrs. William Viedler.

Mr. Viedler, a multi-millionaire at that time, has since largely
increased his fortune and is now the controlling interest in a
prominent trust of comparatively recent formation. They had been
Brooklynites but bought a fine house on Fifth Avenue.

We first met them on the occasion of a dinner given in their honor
by Mr. and Mrs. Curtice, to welcome them to New York. Mr. Curtice
is a nephew of Mrs. Viedler.

The Caines, although intimate, were not of the inner circle. This
comprised Mr. and Mrs. Curtice, Mr. and Mrs. Todd, Mr. and Mrs.
Banford, Mr. and Mrs. Viedler, and ourselves. Curtice was our
poet laureate, and in a song he composed and sang at a dinner were
included these lines:

"Thus from the crowd that gathered then
Has sprung to fame the immortal ten,
And Stowe has been so generous since
That all the crowd have dubbed him Prince."

After that event all our friends referred to the little circle as
the "Immortal Ten;" my wife was called Lady Stowe, and I, by right
of song, Prince.

It is very difficult to say what we did not do that year in the
way of pleasure-seeking, but it is an easy matter to name the chief
event.

As guests of Mr. Viedler a party of eighteen went camping in the
Maine woods. In every detail the trip was a perfect success. Private
car to Moosehead Lake, a banquet fit for Lucullus, prepared by his
own chef, en route, exquisite Tiffany menus, and costly souvenirs.
Headquarters at Mt. Kineo for a day or two, and then down the West
Branch of the Penobscot in canoes, and over the carries until the
comfortable camp at Cauquomgomoc Lake was reached. Deer, moose,
partridge, and trout were in abundance. Every minute of that
delightful outing was filled with pleasure.

Early in the fall we decided to try a winter in New York. The "San
Remo," at Seventy-fourth Street and Central Park, West, had just
been completed, and I rented three connecting apartments, which gave
us parlor, library, dining-room, five bedrooms, and three baths,
all outside rooms. I also rented in Sixty-seventh Street a stable,
and on the first of October we took possession.

We were more than pleased With the life in town, and I commenced
negotiations with Dore Lyon for the purchase of a handsome house
he owned at West End Avenue and Seventy-fifth Street. Just as the
trade was about to be closed my eldest daughter was attacked with
typhoid. She became very ill, and this so alarmed us we concluded
to return to "Redstone" in the spring and remain there.

When the holidays drew near the invalid was convalescent, and we
opened "Redstone" for a house party. When we returned to New York
it was with a feeling of regret.

Business had been good throughout the year. My profits were nearly
eighty thousand dollars.




CHAPTER XXX

A VOUCHER



My life, both in business and socially, in 1892 was not essentially
different from that of 1891. Business continued satisfactory, my
profits running up to within a few thousand dollars of the previous
year.

My senior clerk, George Norman, had been in my employ for eleven
years, coming to me as an office-boy. His salary was now twelve
hundred and fifty dollars. I told him that as a clerk he would
never be worth more to us, and advised him to start as a broker,
which he did.

We gave him a strong endorsement in a circular to the trade, and
how well we supported him is shown by the fact that we paid him
sixty-six hundred dollars in commissions the first year of his
business.

We returned to "Redstone" early in May. Our home, after our New York
experience, was more attractive than ever, and we did not believe
we would again care to leave it.

My readers will remember my reference in a former chapter to a
trade journal which I turned over to George Lawton. On July 9th,
in celebration of the commencement of its tenth year, the publisher
issued a special number, a copy of which is before me. An article
it contains is so completely a confirmation of much that I have
written, I insert it here verbatim, except for change of names to
comply with my narrative and the omission of irrelevant matter.
The article was written by the Secretary of the Exchange:

WALTER E. STOWE.

Since the father is properly considered before the child, it has
seemed to us most appropriate in celebrating for the first time the
birthday of the [name of the paper], that we should not only make
some mention of its founder, but even that we should accord him the
first place in our brief memorial; and we have accordingly, rather
against his own wishes, prepared the fine portrait of him which serves
as a frontispiece to this issue. It is hardly in the character of
a journalist that our readers will generally think of Mr. Stowe,
although most of them doubtless know that he originated and
for several years managed what we have no hesitation in saying is
_facile princeps_ among * * * trade papers; but rather in his more
permanent role of decidedly the most successful among the younger
generation of * * * dealers--as a man who has carved out for
himself a position as commanding in respect of the * * * market,
especially, as is occupied abroad by his London correspondent,
the famous A * * * S * * *

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