"
But the effect of the news fell short of the effort. Save that
city editors were irritated that the presidents of certain
railroads figured hastily on slips of paper, the fact that an
old man and his millions would soon be parted, left New York
undisturbed.
In the early 80's this would not have been so. Then, in the
uplifting of the far West, Stephen Hallowell was a national
figure, in the manoeuvres of the Eastern stock market an active,
alert power. In those days, when a man with a few millions was
still listed as rich, his fortune was considered colossal.
A patent coupling-pin, the invention of his brother-in-law, had
given him his start, and, in introducing it, and in his efforts
to force it upon the new railroads of the West, he had obtained
a knowledge of their affairs. From that knowledge came his
wealth. That was twenty years ago. Since then giants had arisen
in the land; men whose wealth made the fortune of Stephen
Hallowell appear a comfortable competence, his schemes and
stratagems, which, in their day, had bewildered Wall Street, as
simple as the trading across the counter of a cross-roads store.
For years he had been out of it. He had lost count. Disuse and
ill health had rendered his mind feeble, made him at times
suspicious, at times childishly credulous. Without friends,
along with his physician and the butler, who was also his nurse,
he lived in the house that in 76, in a burst of vanity, he had
built on Fifth Avenue.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25