Show T f n CO SNIT In h ici a Small Manufacturer and a Powerful Trust Lock Horns in a Conflict Which Results in a Cleverly Earned arned Victory for One of Themy Them The y f I 0 O SIR sold said old Ir lr Gregory Not a dollar not a red cent sir Then ho lowered his head hUld bull hull fashion and z glared over his glasses asses at kh ill t Higham seated beside 1 Si Sir rl the desk It was preposterous r 11 d dI I preposterous Ne Nephew Nephew e 1 phew or no nephew he i had bad no right to come comel 1 5 begging l for a 3 loan loana a fellow ellow situated as he ho was v t r L In the distant day lay off of at f I t Mr Ir Gregorys youth a ayoung ayoung ar r r 3 V young man had started f bi r vt business on n or or 61 possibly p even and andy anda y a rubbed grubbed bed for twenty years ears s rc and thanked God for tho the chance But this h thing thin of ut a boy boya a mere re young plant Of course courso he one of 2 28 ing a manufacturing u f served him right sir 1 11 was In a muddle and know Higham Even Kven MW would carry carr me Q over you ou advanced rather wearily wear thousand sir let me assure It wont b be my m you ou of that Ill drop no money into In o that bottomless venture now get ge pit of yours your Gur You had to make your out of It in the best beat fashion you can But it int a venture Higham asserted with some heat hear Weve tt been running for five years or more already and paid a profit every ever year Dont you under understand stand that if it Benning turned tall tail and nd left tho the concern and taken his money with him I be inthis In Inthis this hole holev v It appears to me James that your partner Benning Dennin exhibited a far tar greater degree of horse sense than your yourself yourself our self Possibly PD Yes Ye sir Ir he did Mr Ir Gregory pursued Bennings well ell out ou of oC it Youre not Youve Youe got cot your 3 our soap fac factory factory tory tOtY and your our big ble stock and so on and the trust people have havo UlVO got you ou Right by the nape of oC the neck sir And toU shake you well Yet on top of that sir you come here hert and ask me for 1600 80 hI I retract r tract that said aid Higham stiffly arising I Int dont 1 nt want ii it Sour grapes gropes sir And now were wr flying Into a a passion eh rasped sped old eld Mr 11 Gregory I 1 think Ill go co l before I say sav anything that may need an apology later Goodday I say James James tut tut Let I t him go snap nap C s l lill s r r r ra a i ti rr urr i 1 f i r I t i t I 1 7 I IZ r rw Z rr w i r Jt 9 r Y Yit it 1 C w wt it r 1 t 41 f t Z A s tR y r y Lt t I z 0 r r O i 2 11 l If I Ia It ID a t J ill D Does oes this mean Mr Higham Hi that you youre refuse use i I pod th the old gentleman as the he do door doer r closed with somewhat some somewhat what impolite vigor Well ell hope from that quarter bad had departed Higham reflected as he be left the building and bent his footsteps toward his unfortunate soap factory Whore else elso could lie he look for ready money monC Higham abandoned it as a hopeless speculation and scowled at the pavement It was tough Yes Yee it was just the limit of bad luck Inck Jf if Benning h deserted But Dut Benning had at nt the very first sign of pressure from the trust and his wretched retched 2 had gone with him Higham frowned as he h recalled their last discussion Its It civil beginning and its violent ending He remembered remembered with disgust It bow they had passed from business arguments to highly hIj ly invidious personalities and rm m that almost to lows blows until at the last they di dis partnership amid the hot haze of ot wordy battle spate 1 9 and separated as ruI enemies 6 Benning Denning was tips a thoroughly lowdown loVd Q mean g rt too tOI Higham was IS well aware of that If It he M saw mw a way wa to injure Higham there was no doubt whatever that he would use It to the utmost t and derive a quantity of petty Pl satisfaction from the act There were certain epithets which Higham had applied to Benning Denning at that last memorable Interview that tho latter gentleman would be long tong In forgiving Indeed Ind ed from recent happenings it seemed palpable that Benning Denning had disclosed to Gorman Brothers other otherwise wise the tho trust certain er details of Highams business busi business ness n from tho the sole desire dC rc to Injure hrs his quondam partner Two or three matters could be explained upon no other ground Higham clinched his fists as he hurried along and yearned earned for an opportunity to plant them upon Banning s person 4 t He was ready rca y enough for a fair fall tight light in n business but the trust worked on different lines Unes At the beginning beg just after Bennings defection they he had sent a representative to Higham Hig am with an offer of 1100 50 for or his Star Soap Soar Works lock stock and barrel b Five thousand dollars for Cor the whole business s Higham Hig lIlg Higham ham had turned down the proposition in a pithy little speech which promptly ended negotiations with the trust Then the trust had gone to cutting prices and good o d heavens ns how they had slashed at them White I soap or brown soap laundry soap or toilet soap they seemed fairly determined to sell it for less than thun Higham could bu te he raw materials JY eople who had ordered steadily all the five years that th y had been making soap dropped off their books by the score They The were ere buying of or the trust and why not They could get the same thing or almost the same thing for little moro more than half halt the old prices Higham Ingham had cut and cut too and manufactured In huge quantities in the effort to cheapen his soap sOl and after all he could only put to himself that painful ques question tion cui bono For the Star Soap Works was crazily overstocked ft UK soap and nd the tho Star Soap Works bank account count a had dwindled almost to a 1 negative quantity and the Star Soap Works business would not have consumed and in fact act did not Mt consume the time and attention of one clerk for one hour dally dall It was a combination of trust overproduction and Donning n and an so far as was wag apparent to Higham the three quantities together were about to write finis to the biography df e the Star Soap Slap Works It was a poor tort sort of goal after five fi solid lid years of hustling Hicham HI ham let himself into the soap works through a arear arear rear door at which he arrived shortly It was silent and lonely for no wonted hum of Df machinery greeted his ear Although McCarthy the engineer still busied bU himself of with the making of one or two small specialties which had not been Of It sufficient importance to warrant trust attention to all nIl intents and purposes the tiro Star Soap Works was shut down Higham sighed as the deadly stillness of the th place placa came camo over him then he be glanced around with an Ironical smile He HI stood within the storehouse Before Defere him in boxes to the ceiling was soap At the tho right he saw soap To the left grant nt piles of packing eases rases l contained soap Soap Poap scap 1 soap Every dollar that might have havo been available that might have been Ocen used sed in the th 1 effort to discourage the trust truss tru by it out outlay lay there locked up UD In soap So much for during In large quantities to save money thought Ingham bitterly as he turned turn d dr I r away from the spectacle and made for the office He favored Rudolph his general utility young man with a lifeless oO and passed to the private office Rudolph was upon u n tho the verge of being out of a ajob ajob job lob probably he understood that but he be might as well have official notification Higham twitted around to t call c the boy and impart the dire Information when that individual entered the theoffice theoffice theoffice office with a stack of letters Eh What said Higham staring in amazement at the collection And they all 1111 came In the first mall replied Rudolph Ru Rudolph Rudolph dolph who had recovered from his own astonishment at atthe atthe atthe the phenomenon But we had more than two letters a day lately Brown Drown Brown Coggswell Company Jenkin Jenkinson son Brothers muttered Higham running over tho the names on the envelope corners orners Thoy They were all aU od old customers of o the Star long since captured by the trust trus What hat l ha had ad happened All AU right Rudolph Ill attend to them s He opened the till envelope with shaking fingers and scanned the letter If Then his eyes os opened wide and he whistled in cheer theer amazement for the communication read Gentlemen Kindly ship shill UK us 8 at your our earliest con can convenience two press gross cakes X laundry soap und and yours very ery truly BROWN ROW BROWN What under the sun Higham began Aro Are they coming back baek to roe we m after all Has the trust gone out of business The letter Jetter was short and sweet but it was an order Actually an order for or two gross ss of or soap and from an anold old customer at that The next epistle turned out to be even more startling It hailed from Jenkinson Brothers and the elder eider Jenkin Jenkinson w son n himself el not net two months ago had given ghen Higham Ingham to understand that their business relations were wen over 07 until the Star Works could hammer down its prices to the trust level Now they wanted twelve cases of Mayfair Highams beloved white toilet soap sop An Aa Aul I well duplicated It and went better with an order for tor brown soap son I And Richards came next with a request for a bill of goods that would have elated dated Higham in inthe Inthe inthe the firms finns roost mst palmy days There w were re letters from druggists end and wholesale grocers from fr lm department stores and jobbers and they all wished to buy that commodity of ot which Higham was waso wasso 20 so o heanU bean ily sick Gold Lord he ejaculated when he had opened half hatt th the j letters Is it a dispensation of Providence Unhappily for that pleasant illusion a clue to the mystery came carne with the next letter Gentlemen We V beg be to o file our order for castes cases es of It Mayfair for immediate imme late delivery r at prices prices quoted In It the current Grocers and amI Druggists Journal Yours truly trul SANFORD S FOR SMITH Frices Prices quoted In the current Journal Higham re repeated repented repeated I havert been quoting prices in the Journal Prices Frices quoted He reached to the table where here lay the weeks copy of tho the trade paper Certainly he had been quoting no prices there or elsewhere Quoting prices had seemed an m imbecile waste of time and money lately latel He lIe had hadnot hadnot hadnot not even felt sufficient interest In the paper to remove its wrapper What That other people leople were doing In the line Un was no earthly concern of his But ut now he opened the sheet with alacrity and turned the crisp pages At first neither his name nor nor that of ot the Star Soap Works appeared He had almost reached tho the last lost page when tho the thing stood out before him In glaring black type hpe among the advertisements ments THE STAR SOAP WORKS OFFER And Ard there followed an outrageous list lI t of quotations on his grades of soap a list compiled complied by one intimately familiar with his stock a list which named prices by some cents cants lower than the trusts most desperate cut Bennings Dennings s work said Hicham Higham H ham leaning back backwith backwith backwith with an angry scowl There seemed to be no question An outsider could never have listed his Ills stock so accurately could never have deVIsed so O unerringly such utterly ruinous prices Benning long known to the Journal people as aa a member of the firm had inserted the advertisement and und Its pur purpose purpose pose ose was clear Higham had now two alternatives Either ho he must publicly repudiate the quotations and trios thus admit that his attempt at competition with the trust was dead and arid done for and anti that at people might as well buy hers if they were looking for or bargain prices or he must take the pile of and fill tilt them and get out of business There was 5 no doubt as to that last When hen he had nad disposed of his soap at the Journal quotations and pocketed the entailed losses es ho he could never nevor ne r go on and tIght light the combine And yet The rhe proprietor of tho Star walked to the window and stared abstractedly at the hugo huge brick building two blocks away By chance he and the trust were near neighbors That Immense red structure represented the machine that was grinding grind lug him to bits He lie wondered whether tho the trust was chuckling over Oer his predicament Ir certainly they knew kne that he Ile had never published those thosa quotations In all probability they were waiting for him hint to refute them Then Ihen they the would Youl sail in and put the Emr Soap Works hors du combat for all time What should he lo do o Do Rennin s spite expressed in the tile advertisement seemed l to have ave settled that ques question tion He could write all tho people who had ordered and ard tell them that the advertisement was wag a fraud and shut up stop stoop Or he could sell out at a D heartbreaking loss and shut up shop Either way the Star Soap Works had reached the end of its rope Still Higham returned to his desk opened op ned the balance of ot the letters and figured for a time on the back of an envelope There ware orders sufficient to clear out a good quarter of o his stock All Ail right hed fill nil them He lie would abide by the terms of Bennings advertisement and arid sell out his soap at the ruinous figures to the very last cake Hed die fighting or with the appearance of lighting fighting at least lad And nd when the stuff was all paid for there then would be a 3 little tittle cash for him to take out and the tho machinery was worth something although not much at second hand It was better than sacrificing his stock later and the tha loss no greater For two or 0 1 three days or perhaps a week the thO Star Soap Works should do a rushing business even the trust cut under unter the murderous prices In the Journal And if the Star Soap Works must go up in smoke at least a little blaze of glory Clory should pre precede cede tho fumes A SS ith considerable amazement Rudolph received the memorandum of orders to be sent rent out that day With ith even greater surprise the shortly heard that young oung mans voice over the telephone for tor he had harbored har harbored harbored bored the impression of late that Higham was dead He Ho sent a pair pall of double trucks and they bathed backed up UI before fore tho Star Soap Works Men Aien began to pass out cases Clees until dozens and ard literally hundreds of them stood on the little platform Then they were loaded On to the trucks and ant ana carted away to their various desti destinations destinations nations A coupe of blocks down the street a man on ono one of thu tho upper doors of the trust factory happened to note the activity and remarked upon It to another man The Tho second man unhooked the telephone on his desk de k and transmitted the tho tb Information to the general offices down downstairs downstairs downstairs stairs An n impression took shape In the trust offices office that Higham had Inherited money or 01 gone Insane for forthe forthe forthe the advertisement adv was evidently genuine an and l the Star Soap Works was wag shipping is In II quantities quant ties By night a quarter of ot tin storehouse had been clean cleaned ed out Next morning a flesh fre h assortment of orders greeted Higham He classified fd tiem made out another memorandum and handed it over to Rudolph That day the appeared before 10 and they i returned with th empty wagons at 4 f in the afternoon to load lood up u once more Late Lat In the day Higham ham was seated in his offices wearing a smile that might have passed for serene satis satisfaction satisfaction faction but |