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Show By Julius Muller. Ono day the Great Financier, clad as ' usual In Ills Russian sable coat, emerged as usual from Ills electric hansom, and nicchnnlcnlly, as usual, assumed the fe-roclty fe-roclty otcountenanco with which he had entered his olllcc dally fqr more than twenty years. With the usual air of frowning pre-occupation pre-occupation that made him laboriously ob-llvious ob-llvious of nil the humility oX the awed clerks and the eager smiles of waiting visitors, he strode Into his private ofllce at the end of the long, open banklng-room banklng-room and slammed the door behind him. Soon his bell rang, as It had rung every morning for twenty years, to summon one of his chatties olllce boy, bookkecp- i er, manager or partner Into his presence to have his soul withered bj llerce, con-tcmptuous con-tcmptuous donuuciallon. This time It was the ofllce manager who i was selected by tho tinkling Chooser of the Slain, while the rest of the banking i force heaved one universal sigh of relief; very much as at that moment a tribe of buahmen In Central Africa may have heaved a similar sigh when their Prlest-chief Prlest-chief had at last selected tho one who was to be the sacrifice to an angry god. The wicked eyes of the Great Flnnn-cler, Flnnn-cler, bisonlike even to the little tinge of bright red in the low-hanging corners, nailed the poor manager for live long minutes, whllo criticism of the entire of-lice of-lice system, from copying press to liten-ographcrs, liten-ographcrs, was spat at him. "And now," concluded the chief, swlng-lug swlng-lug around to his desk and pointedly dls-missing dls-missing the fact that thcro was any crca-Hire crca-Hire like 'a manager In the world of cre-ated cre-ated things, "I want you to send mo a new stenographer when I ring for one. That's all." The olllce manager backed out softly, closed the door gently, assumed a stern air of. command, and treated tho ofllce boys to a highly creditable Imitation of the simoon that had Just turned him pale to the Hps. i In the prlvntc office the Great Financier, having glanced sharply to see that the iloor was abut, furtively took a mirror out of a drawer and looked at himself, j The face thnt looked back at him was ; not pretty It Justified the remark that a finnnclal enemy had made once, that it 1 looked as if It had been roughly hnm- mered out of pumice stone with a mighty poor hammer The bison-eyes were sur-i sur-i rounded by puffy skin. The great nose, j full of strength, was so carelessly nd- justed by an otherwise careful Provl-' Provl-' , dence that It seemed to point half a doz-L-n ways at once. Tho mirror had told the Great Flnan-eier Flnan-eier the same truth" ful story for many vcars. Constant reiteration of the truth had mado him first familiar, and then willing to embrace, as the poet ways of vice. He was convinced now that it was , Dot such a bad-l&oklng face; and the easo with which many beautiful women of J l?abylon had been able to look on It lov-i lov-i lngly through the golden veil that sur-rounded sur-rounded him had added to the conviction. Despite tho conviction, however, he had spent enough money to build a United States cruiser of the second class In an t-ffort to Improve hla beauty, and many a specialist from Babylon to Vienna had h:ul reason to bless the mysterious ways of nature. Ho was not accustomed to deceiving himself about many things. Self-deccp- tlon is incompatible with the supreme ( work of man in the world, which is mnk-liig mnk-liig money, nnd to this work he had con-I con-I sccratcd himself. Hut In ehepr sclf-de-fense he had to deceive himself on one pplnt. and that was on the point of looks, though deep In a corner of his ijeart he mav hao known that for nil his Rus-' Rus-' 1 slan Babies and priceless cloths and won-'t won-'t derful linen, he looked like a tough cab-man cab-man of the nlghthawk variety. I Presently he rang his bell and In came a,new stenographer. Tier appearance did not surprise the Great Flnnncler a bit. lie had seen her the moment he entered the ofllce. as ho had seen everything elso In It. with those savagely oblivious eyes, j He began to dictate to her gruflly. As she wrote Jic looked at her brown head, i There were liquid golden lights on It. like j the sunlight that laughs at the bottom of 1 shallow brown brooks In the woods. It 1 made him think of the line In "Maud" "My bird with the shining head" nnd that was the' llrst time he hnd ever thought there was anything In that fellow Tennyson. The girl had long eyelashes, and he could see them, and the fair curve of her cheek as she bent her head over her notes, i Suddenly she looked up, frightened, be-iH be-iH cause she had missed the exact words of iH n sentence. At the sudden look tho groat iH Ilnanclcr felt himself getting so ombar- rassed that he bit furiously at a cigar, iH ' stammered, and finally said, helplessly. "That's all." That morning he hnd rolled through the streets with only one thought. It was to "lick" and "wipe out" an insolent West-cm West-cm scoundrel who had had the effrontery iH ' to appear in his own Wall street pre- iH serves and play at his own game. All in Wall street had bcon trembling In Its hab- M ,1 ltuallr trembling shoes at the frightful iH i impudence of the man who could dare to iH think of such a thing as bearding tho I King. For days all the minor financiers iH I had bcn talking in awed tones of. the bat- iH tie of giants that was to come As a matter of fact Wall street did not know anything about It. which is not at all an unusual matter: for a little coterie that fondly imagines that It Is the pulse of the country every time some more or less bogus paper stock goes up or down In price Is not atall likely to have sano iH points of view about anything. Long ago, In the beginning of things iH Wall street and Lombard street and all their nieces nnd cousins and aunts learned that if the Investors were encouraged to uso common sense tho great llnanclal Interests In-terests of the stock exchanges and bourses would be reduced to the onerous necessity of earning money instead of "making" It. Thus common senso became an article tabooed so successfully that at last (also long, long ago now) common sense fled from the great llnanclal interests inter-ests themselves. So Wall street Just then worshipped the great financier, though everybody knew right well that he was only a swollen bully, who was strong because he had laid out a beautiful wide driveway through the nasty Criminal Code. Instcnd of taking other people's mone and putting It clumsily Into his own safe, which would have been vulgar stealing, he bought nice old rubbishy stocks cheap, threw them on the market, and then borrowed bor-rowed other people's money from banks and trust companies with which that stock was promptly bought at greatly advanced ad-vanced prices, owing to the sudden "buying "buy-ing demand" that sprang up the minute the hungry money struck the "stree-" The new bully from the West didn't have such good machinery It takes time to build It up, even In Wall street. So common senso would have told every one that tho "battle of the giants ' was more likely to be a game of blackmail and bluff, nnd that the swollen Ilnanclcr would never risk a buttle. If he couMn't beat the now bully in the llrst hot engagement the new bully would win his point, which most palpably, was to be taken Into some of the good things of the preserves. The new bully had a beautifully simple weapon that embarrassed the acute minds of the "street" not a little, lie told lies-great, lies-great, wonderful, patent lies. He lied by word of mouth nnd in print. He lied In private and In public, by word and deed. At llrst the "street" thought that he was "easy." Most liars are. So the "street ' tried the Innocent expedient of speculating that the exact contrary of tho lie would be the truth, and got horribly bitten. Lies are so complex. This man's lies were pOji'tlcularlyQio. Henry James could have written a' whole novel full of utterly unintelligible un-intelligible analysis about any ono of the dozens that Issued from him In a week. It was this that worried the Great Financier. He never lied not that he went to the nbsurd length of telling the truth, but simply because he never, never said anything about anything When a lie did happen to be absolutely necessary, he had partners hired for that particular nnd exact purpose, and when they were caught at It, they knew that none would be more deeply shocked, humiliated hu-miliated and outraged than the Great Financier with his spotless record. He had laid out a pretty good campaign that morning, and when he entered the office his head was full of It. And then ho saw the new stenographer. And then, quite unreasonably, a foreign Interest Inter-est had come Into his mind When he went home that night he thought every now and then of the girl whllo he planned the picturesque destruction destruc-tion of the Western Interloper It was ridiculous. It was sickening. He cursed himself for thinking of such an unimportant triviality as a typrewrltcr girl with brown hnlr and eyes of a still darker brown, with an enchanting sheen of amber In them under certain light. The next day, when the girl came In response re-sponse to his call for a stenographer, he shook his head and gruflly told her to send in one of the others. At noon, when he glanced swiftly to where she sat, he noticed teaia In her eyes. It didn't exactly cut him to the heart, for that was a tough member, but It pleased l.Imi somehow. He was quite right, too, in his unthonght thought that she was crying because ho had rebuffed her She was. If he had known that the tears were shed because she was afraid of losing her new "Job" he might have let her worry and be hanged. As It was. he called for her aflor luncheon and dictated letters to her again. After that sho became his regular stenographer, and at last alio was promoted pro-moted to a seat just outside of his otllco door Finally, he even went so far as to say "good morning" to her habitually, which was tho most startling Innovation that had ever been Introduced In the place. Sho was an extremely poor stenographer, stenogra-pher, too. Before the end of the week ho dictated a letter to her that was to deliver the final blow at the cheeky man from the Wes. It was a triumph of diplomacy full of sentences so ambiguous ambigu-ous that It might have been produced In any court of law without Involving him In the least. And the girl left 6ut the most Important sentence of the lot, the very keystono of the whole graceful arch. Had the error been mado by any other stenographer he would havo discovered It at once. This time he didn't. The result was that he was delivered over, bound hand nnd foot, to his Western friend the next day. Of course ho compromised. The Westerner's West-erner's price of peace was participation in a vast number of prolltablo projects, and he fjot It Wall Street, forgetful of Its wise prophecies regarding a battle of tho giants, gasped with relief, speculated blandly on tho results of the sudden friendship, and got plucked down to Us tall feathers by both To revengo Itself, it composed financial sagas, which told humorous and overdrawn over-drawn things about tho defeat of the Great Flnnncler. When he read some of them, heightened by brilliant local color, in tho newspapers, newspa-pers, tho Great Financier noticed something some-thing peculiar about, himself. Instead of being ablo to grunt. at them, aud forget them, tha stories affected him unpleasantly. unpleas-antly. After a time he discovered with ntni in liii 1 1 1 ii ii nii ii 1 1 i hi in i nun n.iiiiin mi ' somewhat of a shock, that he was wondering won-dering whether the girl at the ofllce would be amused by the poisonous ridicule ridi-cule that was poured, somewhat gingerly and apprehensively, over his head that morning. "I'd like to know whv I didn't discharge dis-charge lw for making that damn fool mistnko." he growled to himself. But he knew very well, though he wouldn't admit ad-mit it even to hlmsolf. It became quite an Idyl very onc-alded to bo sure, for he was too clcer to let anybody else see It. and loo cunning to let the girl guess it lie didn't yield tamely like a shepherd boy to tho Idyl. He saw the ridiculousness ridiculous-ness of his position. Ho winced. lie snarled at hlmdclf. He poured his own savage contempt over himself more unsparingly un-sparingly than he ever had poured It over his underlings Even while he was raging at the shamefully shame-fully ludicrous object that he was In his own eyes, lie was engaging In a very gratifying little affair. He had discovered that a great corporation cor-poration waa practlbally bankrupt, and he had gone to It and In all Innocence had offered a price for their stock. The of-llcera, of-llcera, Imagining that they were swindling swind-ling him neatly, but fearing that the old fox might discover it. sold to him glee- tuiiy at nis ngures. Tiien tiie innocent financier sold the whole business at a beautiful, fancy sum to another greater corporation In which he held a lot of stock. As eoon as the sale had concluded and duly announced as another wonderful stroke of American Industrial genius, tho etock of thr big corporation naturally went up madly, and the Great Financier quietly sold his share In It at an amazing profit. Then he got ready to sit back and chuckle. He had fixed tho bankrupt corporation cor-poration so that Its true state would not dawn on anybody for a year or more, and by that time It would bo easy enough to charge tho big corporation with having 'ruined it by bad management But, alns! On tho night after all this pretty plan had been carried out successfully, success-fully, the ex-treasurer of the old bankrupt corporation, at a dinner where there was a small Atlantic of champagne, was misled mis-led Into making some remarks that ho Intended In-tended to bo kindly humorous, about the great financier and the Western financier. The papers pounced on the speech with wild, uncanny Joj . and printed it on tlrst pages with funny headlines and black letters let-ters and Italics and cartoons and even verses, the next day. He tore the papers Into bits and ground his heels on the tatters in his hansom han-som that morning. All the tlmo he kept wondering quite unconsciously, what tho girl would think of the ribald stuff. ;1 lis rage was increased by the knowledge knowl-edge that he could not revenge himself at least, not Immediately. He was too well aware that a conflict now with the cx-trensurer was altogether likely to cause disclosures that might drag him from his cherished position as the great defender of vested Interests and tho guardian of the National prosperity. 'Yet his wrath was of the white-hot kind that demanded Instant action the action of plain human men with lists or weapons. As soon ns he reached his ofllco he called the girl In nnd loosed his anger in a letter to the ex-treasurer It was a beauty of a letter. It was not one of the politely ambiguous velvet gloves of letters that the great financier wrote habitually. It was the mailed fist, pounding with a smash like a butcher's cleaver. It was libel It was unforgivable Insult. It was fearful menace. It was maddening scorn When he had finished he drew a long breath. The effort had dissipated some of the rago that choked him, and ho looked at the girl lo see how she took It Her eyes were turned down modestly, and he had to rest content with the assurance of his own mind that she couldn't help but be Impressed. "Bo very careful with this letter." said he. "I am going out and will sign it when T return. Lot no one see It." In reality, of course, he Intended to tear It up. Somehow ho felt almost placid when he went out. "I guess It'll mako her sit up," thought he. "Show her who's boss In this town." And he achieved as near an approach to a chuckle as ho had ever permitted himself In his life. Tho typewriter girl rattled the wonderful wonder-ful lotter off on her machine, and knew ns much of It when finished as she did while it was being dictated, which was precisely and exactly nothing. The deluge de-luge of wrath and monace had tlowed through her prolty pink ears and Into her pencil and thenco Into pot-hooks and thence Into the machine without leaving tho faintest vestige irslde of her pretty, empty head. And oven If she had pa.ld tho slightest attention to what was in the loiter, she wouldn t have understood It, for nil that she ever rend In the pnpers was the flcilon and the Jokes and the fashion notes. So whllo the great finnnefcr was thinking think-ing how she would "sit up," sho was eating eat-ing candy with tho head olllce boy nnd accepting his coy Invitation to go to tho theater with him. The theatrical matter Interested her so much that a Utile whllo later, when she got a lot of letters to address, she mixed up the gTcat financier's great letter with the pile and sent It away to the ex-treasurer. It did to him Just what a masterly letter let-ter like that would naturally do to a whito man. He forgot that It was a high financier. He saw red. Not being ablo to do murder, he did tho next best thing. In tho niolten heat of his savage anger ho went to the big corporation and "split." Three, davfj afterward the newspapers had a magnificent morsel a morsel about five columns long, telling how the great financier had sold the stock of a totally i SHE WA5 APHAID 9F HER NEW JQB HR KHig9H 5lM bankrupt corporation, and had been caught so thoroughly in tho act that even his colossal nerve had weakened and he had agreed tamely to take the worthless stock back again. It cost tho Great Financier a pretty penny; much, very much more than he had "made" by his clever deal. It made him writhe and he felt hurt all over, for It is more than man can bear to loso lots of money and reputation at tlie same time, and bo placed In a position where the meanest can lllng gibes at him who but lately was so great that none dared even to sta-e at him. Yet though he rode downtown with his bison-like eyes glaring like those of the baited king bull of tho herd, and though ho gritted his teeth with helpless fury and though he desired madly that he might stamp all "Wall Street under foot and strangle newspapers and gosslpera. he never once thought of discharging the girl 'that had brought It all on him. In the midst of his futile ferocity and hurt, he thought of her with a certain amount of pleasurable anticipation. Without put-ling put-ling It to himself plainly, he wondered whether she would not still be humbly loyal if ho asked It of her. His hasty glance as he entered tho office of-fice showed him that her desk was vacant. va-cant. Ho rang his bell. The ofllce manager man-ager came In with eager politeness. "Where's Miss Atkinson?" growled the financier Tho office manager stammered and coughed a bit. "Well?" roared the cWiLi "I'm sorry, sir, but ?ht'a today, sir."', he said 'Ha. that she's got married to Ml sir." ' "All right! Get out'" red Financier. f When the door shut lm manager he Jumped up, fta iloor, shook his list at Miw the wall, and said, chcldrsf? "You ass! You hldtoia. 1 ass1 You ought to be sbm! and spewed forth to tk f You utter miracle of an aa." Mr Gunnison was tfct G cler's head office boy alur attainments nil, prosptSS Copyrighted, 1K5, by JeSs |