" He covered up his peculations by manipulating the bank's books." Frontispiece, (See page x, Jiit THE TELLER'S TALE A BANKING STORY FOR BANKERS A LAW STORY FOR LAWYERS A LOVE STORY FOR LOVERS BY PHIL. A. RUSH NEW YORK fmtcftetbocfeer press 1905 COPYRIGHT, 1905 BY PHIL. A. RUSH Entered at Stationers' Hall A II Rights Reserved DEDICATED TO THE FAITHFUL BANK EMPLOYEES OF AMERICA 2138096 CONTENTS PART I CHAPTER INTRODUCTORY . I. WILLOW SPRINGS. II. ARTHUR AND MARY III. ALBERT AND ALICE IV. LOVE'S LABOR . V. PASSION TENDER AND TRUE . VI. MOTHER AND DAUGHTER VII. THE COLONEL AND j Col. Wilmot } THE CONGRESSMAN ( Mr. Blair } VIII. THE BLAIRS AT HOME . IX. THE BANKERS' MEETING X. How SHALL WE KNOW? XL COLONEL WILMOT AND THE BANK- ERS XII. MINISTER AND NOBLEMAN XIII. THE LAW XIV. LIGHT IN DARK PLACES XV. POLITICS AND POLITICIANS XVI. THE RACE is WON PAGE vii I 8 16 21 29 35 40 5 2 59 76 93 98 i5 112 117 122 VI Contents PART II CHAPTER PAGE XVII. WILL SORROWS NEVER CEASE? 125 XVIII. ARTHUR'S STORY: LESSONS AND REFLECTIONS . . -131 XIX. ARTHUR'S STORY: IN THE BANK 141 XX. ARTHUR'S STORY: TEMPTATION 148 XXI. ARTHUR'S STORY: PRACTISING TO DECEIVE . . . 153 XXII. ARTHUR'S STORY: A TANGLED WEB ..... 161 XXIII. ARTHUR'S STORY: CONFLICTS OF CONSCIENCE . . . 168 XXIV. IN THE TOILS . . . .173 XXV. WEEPING AT NIGHT . . 181 XXVI. TRUTH MOVES UNSEEN . . 184 XXVII. THE WASTE-BASKET . . 192 XXVIII. THE DEATH OF MRS. WARD . 200 XXIX. THE TOILS UNWOUND . . 203 XXX. FROM OVER THE SEA . . 206 XXXI. JOY IN THE MORNING . .212 EPILOGISTIC . . . .217 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE HE COVERED UP HIS PECULATIONS BY MA- NIPULATING THE BANK'S BOOKS Frontispiece THE CHARM OF HER MAGNIFICENT PHYSICAL BEAUTY 10 COLONEL WILMOT READING HIS PAPER AT THE BANKERS' MEETING . . .64 " I USED THE MONEY OF THE BANK, AND LOST, TIME AFTER TIME " . . . 163 MR. ADAMS REACHED DOWN INTO THE WASTE BASKET FOR PAPER TO SCRIB- BLE ON ...... 192 THEY PLACED SOME FLOWERS THERE IN MEMORY OF WHAT SHE HAD BEEN TO THEM . 216 Vll INTRODUCTORY (Clipped from Newspapers) GAMBLED IN GRAIN CASHIER DEFAULTER TO EXTENT OF $170,000 CAUSED THE AMERICAN EXCHANGE BANK TO CLOSE ITS DOORS AT PARKSBURG PARKSBURG, O., Jan. 22. The Amer- ican Exchange Banking Company, cor- ner Broadway and Central Avenue, closed its doors to-day. The Insolvency Court has appointed the Parksburg Trust Company as receivers. The assets and liabilities are placed at $1,500,000 each. Attorney James Maguire on behalf of the bank made the following statement this afternoon: "George A. Riggs, cashier of the bank, is a defaulter to the extent of $i 70,000. The defalcation is more than Introductory the paid capital and surplus combined. The original capital was $200,000, but only $50 per share was paid in. The depositors will be protected fully. The stockholders will have to pay in the sum of $100,000 more on their capital stock and $200,000 on stockholders' liability. ' ' The directors worked all day trying to make up the deficiency, but the bur- den was too heavy and they decided to close the bank. "FOR MANY YEARS RlGGS HAS BEEN SPECULATING IN GRAIN. HE COVERED UP HIS PECULATIONS BY MANIPULATING THE BANK'S BOOKS." EMBEZZLER OF $100,000 CAPTURED IN MEMPHIS JAMES M. EDDY DEFAULTING TELLER THIRD NATIONAL BANK CLEVELAND, N. J. MEMPHIS, TENN., January 8. James M. Eddy was arrested here to-day charged with embezzling $100,000 from the Third National Bank of Cleveland, N. J., while occupying the position of teller. Eddy was found driving a butter wagon, attired in a sweater and cap and other clothing usual to the occupation, and bore but little resemblance to the dressy figure so familiar in Cleveland's social set sixteen months ago. He was going under the name of George Dane, but when arrested and confronted by the Pinkerton man he readily admitted his identity and con- fessed his guilt. Introductory xi RACE HORSES HIS DOWNFALL Eddy said that while with the bank he had contracted the habit of betting on the races, and that this habit had resulted in his downfall. Luck had not been with him, and he had been compelled to use the funds of the bank to carry on his betting opera- tions. FOR NINE MONTHS he had con- tinued in his course of embezzlement, until finally being discovered he was compelled to leave Cleveland. The thousands of dollars which had passed through his hands in the capa- city of note teller had been too strong a temptation for Eddy to resist. As he told the detective yesterday, he was no piker in his bettings. If he were playing an apparent "sure thing" it was no- thing unusual for him to lay $4000 and $5000 upon a race. According to Eddy's own statement, money had been taken from the bank just as he needed it whether $50 or $5000, it being as easy to obtain one sum as the other. Ever before the mind of Eddy there floated that alluring will-o'-the-wisp hope that he would sooner or later make a winning that would place him on his feet and enable him to straighten out his accounts with the bank. DUR- ING ALL THAT TIME HE HAD MANAGED BY SKILFUL MANIPULATION TO KEEP HIS BOOKS IN SUCH SHAPE THAT THEY WOULD NOT REVEAL HIS SECRET. The above are samples of what we see almost daily in the public press. The names given of cities, banks and indi- viduals are fictitious, but the occurrences are real. Xll Introductory Does a system of banking which permits such occurrences which, confessedly, is powerless to prevent them deserve our confidence? Has it earned the right to a place among the progressive business methods of the day ? If not, what then ? THE AUTHOR. Two OAKS, March, 1905. The Teller's Tale The Teller's Tale Part I CHAPTER I WILLOW SPRINGS UPON a plateau where the sand-hills which rise from the river many miles to the south, meet the red lands that descend from the mountains far to the north, Willow Springs lifts her proud head as the home of as good civilization, past and present, as our continent has ever known. Just how long the town has been in existence no one knows; but it was an Indian village, called by five words which 2 The Teller's Tale meant Big-trees-by-rising-water, from the fact that a great artesian spring comes out of the ground in the midst of the town and forms a dampness of soil and atmosphere in which willow trees grow to unusual size. And the name it now bears was taken from the same circumstance. Under these willows, in the olden times, neighboring tribes who came for water, and to counsel among their friends, held their meetings and discussed the courte- sies of the chase, and other matters of rude diplomacy. And long before the present territory of the State was marked out, traders came among the friendly natives and exchanged the wares of civilization for the returns of the chase and the handi- work of the wigwam. Some of the Indians remained long after the white man became the pre- vailing type in the community, and even retained ownership of lots in the town after it was laid off by municipal sur- veys. And on the county records at Willow Springs 3 Willow Springs may be seen some deeds to town lots made by old Tush-mo -ko-lah and others of his tribe curious things indeed to come from those children of the forest. But now Tush-mo-ko-lah has perished from the earth, and his descendants are huddled in a narrow place in a strange land sullen, silent, and sad waiting for the Great Father to call them to the happy hunting-grounds beyond the grave. Long years have passed since that time, and the town has had its trials and triumphs in both war and peace. Its people have planted trees on their broad thoroughfares and erected dwellings gen- erally of more than average size and beauty on the spacious lots, while the County Court-house in the centre of a large business square, and the several churches, schools of learning, and other buildings of a public nature, as well as the private manufacturing establish- ments situated on the railroad skirt- ing two sides of the town, give us the 4 The Teller's Tale appearance and the fact of substantial growth and prosperity. In both civic and political life Willow Springs has been more prominent in days gone by than any other place in the State. Being attractively located, it drew from the older States men of character, scholarship, and ability, who pre-empted large bodies of fertile lands, and brought their slaves to help reduce them to cultivation. Later followed the invention and in- troduction of the cotton-gin, which gave to the growth of cotton such an impetus, and to the lands themselves such a value, as the pioneer had never dreamed of. And with it all there came a life strenu- ous, especially in the law, for settling vexed legal questions and fixing rights, and in politics, for studying statecraft and maintaining the institutions which had grown up with, and out of, slavery. The issues involved were sufficient to arouse within them all the ambitions of the Anglo-Saxon race, while the op- portunity which leisure and wealth gave Willow Springs 5 for prosecuting ambition and developing ability made them what they were. This spirit of activity on a high plane pervaded other sections of the country, but Willow Springs was the highly favored. She had more great lawyers at the bar, before the War of Secession, and more judges on the bench, and more statesmen in the halls of legislation ; and had more commissioned officers, from general down, in that war, than any other three towns of the same size in the State. These great men have all gone to their fathers. The circumstances which made them have passed away. Greatness is now being developed along new lines. Some of the sons of these men have caught the spirit of this later day and are relatively in the position occupied by their forbears. But, with most of them, the changes were either too great for the inherited trend of their lives, or they in- herited the vices transmitted from their sires, not their virtues; and they are to-day either struggling with the dry 6 Tne Teller's Tale bones of the past, trying to make the skeleton stand upon its feet, or punily and pitifully occupying minor positions in the new life, eking out a bare existence. And in looking at the past of those people and the present the causes of yesterday which brought their certain effects, and the causes of to-day with effects unknown I think one who has lived through the past, or understands the past, is but a poor observer if he cannot form an hypothetical equation of the known qualities, and from them find the unknown. If so, then the life which lies about us is replete with suggestions for the writer, on lines which are interesting, instruc- tive, and inexhaustible. This reminds me of the story of one who was our guest in troublesome times a poor German laborer who came to this country before the war, and settled in another part of the State. Having enlisted in the Southern cause he was with his command at Willow Springs when the Federals were driven from the Willow Springs 7 town. The surprisedness of the attack having forced the enemy to leave the paymaster's supplies behind, the patriotic Confederates were proceeding to destroy everything, when the thrifty Dutchman, thinking to hold both ends of the credit currency string (one of which was grow- ing very weak at that time), filled his knapsack full of greenbacks and bore them safely home at the conclusion of peace. I see it stated that only one person out of fifty knows how to use money which he has not earned. This may be true, but, if so, this was the one of the fifty. For he became a man of affairs a successful planter, banker, manu- facturer and reared a large family of worthy children, now among the pros- perous citizens of the New South. And but let that pass, to become a part of the story which follows this (The Second Slavery), while we linger at the flowing fountain of Willow Springs and listen to a recital of The Teller's Tale. CHAPTER II ARTHUR AND MARY Arthur St. John love Mary Blair? The gossips said he did. The gos- sips ought to know, judging from the interest they take and the noise they make. Anyhow, if Arthur St. John had been asked by any one having the right to know, he would have answered in the affirmative. Why should he not love the brunette beauty of splendid physique, of charming manners, of fine accomplishments? A little cold at times, a little spoiled al- ways, might not a lover find a warmth beneath such exterior all the more genial for the reason that it glowed for him alone ? Volcanic fires are sometimes con- cealed within the mountain whose crest is covered with snow. 8 Arthur and Mary 9 Mary Blair was the daughter of the Hon. Charles Henry Blair, the Con- gressman from the district of which Willow Springs is the centre, he having been elected to this position a number of years before, after presiding for two terms over the judicial circuit. Since finishing school she had been on a visit with him in Washington, and the attentions she received there would have been sufficient to turn the head and shake the purposes of a girl of less resolution; and she was compelled to admit to herself that the small life and narrow associations of Willow Springs could not fill the cultivated capacity for social life which had been stirred within her. Like many other successful politicians, Mr. Blair had not forgotten to spurn some- what the steep ascent and rugged way by which he had climbed, as well as the in- valuable school of necessity in which he had learned the earlier lessons of life. Spurning the way, he also secretly despised those who were yet sojourners io The Teller's Tale therein, and he could not bear the thought of a village youth being reckoned among the serious friends of his daughter. Mary Blair might have made a wonder- ful match had she remained in Washing- ton, for not many men could resist the fascinating brilliancy of her mind, and fewer still could fail to fall under the charm of her magnificent physical beauty. But while these qualities take us by storm when the possessor of them bears down upon us, they do not, nowadays, carry men a thousand miles, unless ac- companied by a halo of riches. Mary Blair had no riches. Therefore when she returned to Willow Springs it is natural that she should have dropped into the rather quiet life at home, with no prospect that an outsider would come to take her from us. It was the wish of Mr. and Mrs. Blair that Mary should remain in Washington in the presence of opportunity. Why then did she come home? Did she re- ciprocate the affection of Arthur St. John? The gossips were busy with this The charm of her magnificent physical beauty. Arthur and Mary 1 1 question (nothing seems too sacred for the wag of their tongues), and declared that Arthur St. John was the one at- traction that could reconcile her to the oppressive dulness in the old life at home. And the gossips are sometimes right. Who was this Arthur St. John, that the world as Mary saw it should have moved about him as a common centre? Only this, a young man of honesty, earnestness, cleverness, character, ad- mired by everybody who liked goodness and cleverness. Mary and Arthur had been children together, their parents living on ad- jacent lots in the town; and she being an only child, the two were associated almost as closely as brother and sister. Many a time did the dark curls of the girl and the light hair of the boy bend together over the sand -pile, building castles which a summer shower would melt away. They sat side by side in the swing ; and gathered nuts under the old hickory tree in the St. John yard, Mary 12 The Teller's Tale bringing them in her apron and pouring them down, where Arthur, hammer in hand, soon converted them into a goodly feast for their childish appetites. They attended the mixed school to- gether, and often spent their evenings by the same lamplight, the stronger, analytical mind of the boy guiding the girl through many trying problems of mathematics, while she helped him quite as often with her finer constructive faculty in overcoming the difficulties in language and composition. In their earlier and innocent child- hood they also played sweethearts with that trustful earnestness which is char- acteristic of children. And this was the beginning of those feelings and sympa- thies which existed between Mary Blair and Arthur St. John. If there is a sentiment more tender, more impressive, more enduring, than that of our first love, and one which, even in my advanced years, I find my- self unable to express in the cold, hard lines of prose composition, I have not Arthur and Mary 13 felt it. There is an impression made then which is unlike any ever made afterwards a nearness, a dearness, an indefinable, blending of spirits, which fate accords to us but once in this life, the like of which is echoed in Meredith's Aux Italiens, the cry of a soul for its own first love in the happy youth -time of long ago. It makes little difference what has separated us from that early love in- compatibility of temperament, inequal- ity of education, differences in caste or social standing, ill-health, duties calling us apart, even death itself; nor does it matter what may be our lot in after- life, there is absolutely nothing which can supplant it or wholly supply its place. The union made with another may be, in every outward and material respect, more desirable, without satis- fying the demands of the heart. Yet there are those who deny that the spirit deals with our affairs not religious. How wise hath the Creator made the laws which govern our intrinsic selves! For if these matters were committed to 14 The Teller's Tale judgment, not sentiment, how, out of a multitude of meritorious manhood and womanhood would we be perpetually perplexed, like the referees at a baby show, in choosing a companion for life! How weak would be the bonds of matri- mony, and how unhappy would we be in that relation, when the imperfections of character and disposition are dis- closed, as they surely are, by intimate association! Would affection founded on judgment alone carry us beyond the honeymoon ? But does this imply that the old love, or the first love, was the truer or the better love; or that if realized it would have been more enjoyed? On the con- trary, may we not accept as true the sometimes debated proposition, that it is in the pursuit of the things desired, not in their possession, that humanity finds its highest degree of happiness? Is it not true that "Man always is to be, but never is, blest" ? Does not the disposition of the human Arthur and Mary 15 heart to brood over the old love's loss appear in the light of an excessive senti- mentality, rather than a well-founded regret ? And may we not charge up to imagination and sentimentality, rather than to real suffering, at least some of our unsatisfied heart -longings ? Does it not also follow that the old love is no better as an asset to begin house- keeping on than the new love, and that when put to the test of hard times, or misfortunes, or trials of faith, it would not believe more, or endure more, or suffer more ? But let these things pass as deductions which might be made from some lives, but not all; for "as one star differeth from another in glory," so the ways of love, like the ways of Divinity whose attribute love is, are not always dis- cernible. Therefore we are to follow the fortunes of Arthur St. John and Mary Blair and know them as they are, not as they should be. CHAPTER III ALBERT AND ALICE A LBERT WARD and Alice Wilmot ** had also grown up in our little city, and were intimate friends of Arthur St. John and Mary Blair. Albert was the oldest, Arthur the next, Mary the next after Arthur, while Alice was the youngest of the four. Albert Ward was well educated for one of his years, and his aptitude, steadiness, and kindly disposition and manner had recommended him to employment with the County Bank, where close application and the quickly developed faculty of do- ing the right thing the right way had given him rapid promotion. He was tall and slender and rather angular; had a swarthy complexion, and thoughtful dark eyes, but with not quite enough light in his face to be called handsome. 16 Albert and Alice 17 Albert Ward's father had belonged to the old regime of aristocratic commercial travellers, each of whom carried two porters, and had a good time. He lived as long as some very old men, but it did n't take him as long to do it by two dozen years or more. He plunged; he speculated. His life was of course a disappointment; his death, not unex- pected. But whatever was his cata- logue of faults, it is quite certain that he was more of an enemy to himself than to others. Albert's mother was proud and grand, even in her grief, which never ended. She never believed Mr. Ward had a fault or a failing, although, to others, her dissi- pated life and very looks, advertised the depths of downheartedness into which she had descended with him. Through the timely good offices of others she had saved something from the wreck of their fortunes, and was now living with Albert in their neat little cottage on North Street, he the cyno- sure of her every look and thought, and i8 The Teller's Tale she the object of his more than filial consideration. Alice Wilmot, perhaps, had more to be proud of than any one of the others of the quartette whose fortunes were so early interblended a disposition of meekness, a heart of goodness, and a character to contemplate with increasing appreciation. She was always happy; not in seeking happiness, but in giving it. In playing together, it was Mary who took and Alice who gave. It was so with toys and cakes and apples; and even with sweethearts, Mary had first choice, but Alice was none the less agreeable. It thus occurred, in the seeming dis- pensation of love, guided by the will and selfishness of Mary Blair, that Albert Ward was allotted to Alice Wilmot ; and she seemed to be pleased with his kind, big self walking by her petite side. Why is a thing of beauty a joy for- ever? Why does its loveliness increase, instead of passing into nothingness? Because it is a spiritual quality, indi- Albert and Alice 19 visible and indestructible, and like all spiritual things, increases with use and cultivation. Not only this, but all who feed upon beautiful things become beau- tiful themselves. With bodily food, surfeiting succeeds satisfaction, and the lagging appetite warns the physical man where assimila- tion ends and indigestion begins, just as conscience warns the soul against the in- ception of sin; but there is no limit to the capacity of the heart for enjoying the loveliness of beauty and the ex- hilaration which it gives. But how shall we feed upon beauty, and thereby become beautiful in word, thought, and deed, and have our souls lifted up into an atmosphere of ex- hilaration? It is simple enough by doing beauty, the qualities of which are most perfectly expressed in self-sacri- fice, the essence of love. Our supply of beauty will be in pro- portion to the sacrifice we have made and the joy we have given to others. We shall be like Alice Wilmot inde- 20 The Teller's Tale pendent of those extrinsic agencies of happiness which most people seek and upon which they depend for satisfaction. Certainly there are outward beauties formed for the pleasure of the eye; but these are perishing. Enduring beauty belongs to our intrinsic selves to char- acter ; and although manifesting itself in the simple doing of duty, it is a progres- sive virtue and reaches its highest expres- sion only when we have gone far beyond our recognized obligations. With the light of such a presence as Alice Wilmot to walk by his side, it is small wonder that Albert Ward's rather dark features should have been improved by the association. Under such circumstances, any man ought to have acquired enough reflected spirituality to make him good, and with strength of will and purpose he should have followed up the advantages of early friendship and won her for his own. CHAPTER IV LOVE'S LABOR TN spite of the opportunities and en- * vironments of youth in which our attachments are formed, it is true that neither the course of true love, nor the course of any other love, ever did run smoothly. It is an examination of heart by heart, which puts the affections and character upon trial before sentiment and judgment; and the issues involved are life and death. And, consciously or unconsciously, lightly or seriously, this labor of love is carried on after a certain age by every boy and girl, man and woman, with every other boy or girl, man or woman, provided, of course, that all parties are even remotely available, with the strug- gle becoming more intense as the avail- ability increases. 21 22 The Teller's Tale Some psycho-physiologists claim that the brain-lobe of love begins to develop at the age of about thirteen years ; but I doubt if they have ever located the seat and centre of love force, or that there is any rule which correctly fixes the be- ginning of its manifestations. Such rules are mere speculations like those which fix the beginning of reason, or the maturity of mental or physical power. Long before Mary Blair went away to Staunton for the benefit of one of those splendid colleges, she and Arthur had innocently plighted their troth, with the expectation that they would some day become man and wife. Later on they felt the seriousness of the matter and ceased to talk of the future ; but when the time finally arrived for her to go, and they were waiting aside from the crowd, he said: "Mary, you must read only the best books, and not study too hard. Have plenty of mountain air on your daily bill of fare, and come back to us rosy and strong." Love's Labor 23 "Of course, I'll do all that, Arthur, and write you long letters besides. I am proud of my little banker. Some day we '11 be rich and happy." The fast mail came thundering into the station trembling under the weight of compressed air, and Arthur's heart beat time to the revolutions of its wheels as they bore Mary away for their first separation, while strange and conflicting emotions were stirring within him emotions which physical force could not subdue nor moral brake control. "Rich and happy," he repeated, as he watched the train hurry away as if to meet the approaching darkness, already obscured by the dust and smoke behind. And this dust and smoke seemed emblem- atic of the cloud of distance and doubt which was coming between them. In this age when money is better than men, it is refreshing to see a young heart shocked at the suggestion that Cupid plays second fiddle to Croesus, and that happiness is measured in millions. These were days long since passed 24 The Teller s Tale when my story begins, and I only go back for a glance at the hopes and heart- aches of the springtime of life, because their contemplation will help to make and keep us young, and fix our sym- pathies where they are sometimes needed. For those who enjoy such reflections, a glance will be sufficient; for out of their experiences they may easily fill in the rest. And even to those who look upon the love of childhood as an ephe- meral light, having neither stability nor form, and not intended to prepare us for the reality yet to come, this glance will not seem too long. Albert and Alice were at the train to see Mary depart, and they and Arthur walked away together. While Mary was away Albert and Alice were passing from the open frankness of childish innocence to the reserve of youth, and they were taking their old relation of sweethearts for granted, without dar- ing to re-pledge themselves according to their better conception of what that re- lation would mean in after-years. Love's Labor 25 The bases of our likes and dislikes are not developed or understood in child- hood; for then, in our simple-minded- ness and innocent -heartedness, one little friend may be our sweetheart as well as another. And Albert and Alice began to understand that, while these early attachments are not to be lightly broken off, and cannot be entirely effaced, the threads of affection in the knot of man- hood and womanhood's true love are many, and can be bound securely to- gether only in the experiences which come from later years. When Mary came home from college Alice had completed the curriculum at the High School, but was prosecuting her studies in music preparatory to a course at Boston later. So, the younger and lighter shall I say brighter? days of our four young people had passed at last. Schools were practically finished; apprentices served. Work at the bank now occupied the greater part of the time of Albert and Arthur, the one as teller, the other as 26 The Teller's Tale bookkeeper; and in their work and walk a devotion had sprung up which won for them the title "David and Jonathan." Mary had returned from a second visit to Washington, where Alice was her appreciated guest for quite a while. They had all been out into the world and met many attractive people and seen many interesting places; and a battle of mind and heart was stirring in each between the old environment and the new world beyond, the old ideas and the new, the old attachments and the new, as to which should exercise the greater influence over their lives. It is true that they lived in the little city which had been their home from birth ; but their vision had taken in the world and the people going up and down in it, and this larger view of life was a revelation of space and interest beyond any picture of childhood's imagination. They saw "The wonders of the world and all the things that be." Love's Labor 27 It has come down to us from a former generation of strict disciplinarians, whose parental authority was not only recog- nized, but respected and revered, that "Just as the twig is bent, The tree 's inclined." But now, in this modern day of democracy and independence, and the iconoclastic tendencies which are their concomitants, we may prophesy only what a boy or a girl will know not what they will do. The four had that large measure of happiness which belongs to youth and the rosy view with which youth goes out to meet the future, for love's labor offers the same incentive to mind and heart then that ambition and duty give them both in riper years. To many a mind have the blandish- ments of society set at naught the teachings of childhood, and caused them to become only mocking memories in the years to come. But to Mary Blair the earnestness, 28 The Teller's Tale honesty, and independence of character of Arthur St. John stood out in marked contrast with the horde of sycophants at the Capitol of the Nation, notwith- standing that world of delight in which she had moved above and beyond him. And, in the light of this contrast, she resolved that the fashions, follies, and flatteries of the new life should not divorce her from the affections of the old. CHAPTER V PASSION TENDER AND TRUE IT is with maturer years and the develop- ment of character that we have the completed growth of those subtle char- acteristics or eccentricities of mind and heart, which differentiate one person's taste, judgment, feeling, estimation, and appreciation, from another's, and which most people have felt, but which no one has yet been able to dissect or analyze. We only know that certain persons are alike in these characteristics, and of such we say the one is the affinity of the other; that they are in accord; and as the violin string across the room is moved by the vibrations of the other string with which it is attuned, so the hearts of such persons are responsive, the one to the other. By their union they 29 30 The Teller's Tale promote that universal harmony which is the great law of creation. It was for His own glory that God instituted marriage; for anything which adds to the harmony of the universe, adds to the glory of Him who made the law of harmony. There is warning here for those who promote discord by unions which are inharmonious, and which therefore break this law of the Lord. Let them beware! Let them examine them- selves! When other considerations in- terpose, let them remember that the degree of harmony which is to exist between them depends on affinity the cry of soul for soul, such as we observe in the bird's call for its mate, or the cry of the young child for the love and caresses of its mother. Let each of us hearken to this perfect harmony, while he listens in his lover's life for the echo of his own. Since character, not the person, is what we love, and character takes on new traits in passing through different Passion Tender and True 31 degrees of development, is it safe to form tender attachments and make en- gagements to marry at an early age? May not both parties to the contract have reason later on to regret the step taken? Marrying in haste may be fol- lowed by repenting at leisure. It is sad, but nevertheless true, that there are many married couples who are not in even fair accord. (What a com- mentary on me that the dead catgut which the virtuoso strikes with his bow should be better than I !) There are instances of so-called love, in which the parties have only one, or at most only a few, strongly developed affinities, and where, in other respects, they diverge into absolute opposition. These are "crossed in love," and un- happiness is certain to ensue unless good judgment, and forbearance, and will- power, and charity that covereth a multitude of faults, shall be exercised to extend and perfect their agreements, and to dwarf and eradicate their disagree- ments, so that the one may develop into 32 The Teller's Tale beauty and harmony, while the other may disappear altogether. Unfortunate are those people who, because they never find their affinities, are constrained, in honor, not to marry at all; for it is not good for man or woman to be alone. More unfortunate are they whose per- fect affinities are discovered only after they have united with imperfect ones, or who, for any reason, have been con- demned to live with one while loving another. Most unfortunate of all, are those couples who dwarf and dissipate their love, and have not the disposition, good- ness, and power to develop it again. Envied above any of these are they who "Have never met and never parted, And never yet been broken-hearted " the old bachelor and the ancient maid, who pine not for the coming of an affinity, but who go about some appointed work of useful end, to find, as all who try Passion Tender and True 33 it will find, that duty well done always receives its just reward and, in com- pensatory blessings, makes us equal in happiness with others. We are imperfect creatures at best, and our imperfections manifest them- selves no more plainly and strongly anywhere than in love and marriage. Many of us banish love and put idols on its throne society, shekels, sensuality, which not only fail to give satisfaction while they rule us, but when they are dethroned (as they will be, sooner or later) the heart is incapable, in its own strength, of reconciling itself to what- ever choice has been made ; and unhappi- ness follows, as it always has followed, and always will follow, the transgression of the law. Let us not forget that "God is love"; that love in the human heart is not a little thing that it should be lightly con- sidered in the courts of heaven, even if little things were despised up there ; and that the soul by sin oppressed cannot more readily find mercy before its God, 3 34 The Teller's Tale than the heart, which knows not its affinity, can obtain direction from the same never-failing power. There are in every case limitations on the ability of the heart to judge for itself, just as there are on the mind to reach correct conclusions, and the failure to in- voke a higher power for this purpose is the prime cause of mismated marriages and their train of unhappy consequences. A contrary belief would put God out of our married life, notwithstanding it is by Him, according to His Word, that we are ' ' joined together. ' ' When this Scrip- ture is read to the young couple so solemnly by the minister, do they sup- pose that God helps them at the mar- riage altar only, and that He confirms there a choice already made without His sanction and, perhaps, against His will ? CHAPTER VI MOTHER AND DAUGHTER MOTHERS see better with the eyes of love than children do with their natural eyes. Mrs. Wilmot doubted whether her daughter was satisfied to yield her love to Albert ; so she asked her about this one day. "Mother," she replied, "Albert and I have been sweethearts too long to think of giving each other up now; and then everybody expects us to love each other. Don't you? I said everybody; but sometimes, as we sit or walk together in the evenings, and chat about current events and the commonplace things we see and know, I feel as if my heart were far away; and I sometimes hear him sigh as if he were estranged from me or felt the want of sympathy between us. 35 36 The Teller's Tale "But surely this is all imagination. He is so noble, so good, so true; and he and Arthur have been so kind and faith- ful to us in our troubles. Is not this uneasiness, this insufficiency, only a mani- festation of that disposition which we all have to find fault with those we love ? I do not know ; but I could easily bear my own feelings were I but able to answer the demands of his heart on mine. "Ever since our childhood Albert has been my friend. My earliest and sim- plest wish has been law to him. At school he was ready to take my part, or to supply my wants before I really knew them myself. "He carried my books to school and gave me rare fruits and confections ; and when I was sick he kept fresh flowers by my bedside. "And he was so thoughtful and careful in showing favors that no one teased me or seemed to question his right to give or the propriety of my taking. "Sometimes I fear that I am yet a spoiled child, and that the bounty of his Mother and Daughter 37 offerings has been so great that I do not appreciate him or them as I should." ' ' My dear, I should be pained to believe you had failed to bestow gratitude where it belongs, irrespective of love. The latter you may not give, except as your heart shall dictate ; but the former cannot ever be properly withheld." "I do not intend to be ungrateful, mother, but I do wish that I might no longer feel indebted to Albert. I could then test my love separated from obliga- tion, and know whether this lack of sym- pathy comes from the heart." "I do not know how you are to efface entirely your feeling of obligation, my dear; but I believe you will have an op- portunity to decide the whole matter correctly when you go away to Boston; for if your heart does not call for his presence you may know that there is some unseen barrier between you. "It may be that his efforts to please come from an unconscious desire to bridge a barrier which his heart feels, but which his mind does not understand." 38 The Teller's Tale ' ' Then I am glad we are going away. I have found but one sentiment of his which does not accord with mine his growing desire for wealth, and the belief he seems to have that it could bring us happiness. "You know I have never cared for money, except for the good which we might do with it. It may be that he only cares for it, especially, as an offering to me. Some day he may find that the love which I give and receive must be without money and without price. " I do not understand my perplexity at all. Albert appears to be almost every- thing that one should be, and my mind can discover no reason why he should not fill my life with satisfaction and help me live up to every duty. I am afraid I shall carry to Boston the perplexity I feel in Willow Springs." ' ' There is but one way out of it all, my dear. You should examine your heart as well as you can, going to God in prayer. It is He who guides us in all things, if we ask Him, giving us help in due season according to our needs." Mother and Daughter 39 We shall see hereafter how Alice's heart did respond to its own, and, with her, we shall learn that the God-ap- pointed way, though it lead through the Valley of Sorrows and lash us against the gates of Death itself, is always the best. CHAPTER VII THE COLONEL AND THE CONGRESSMAN Colonel Wilmot COLONEL HARRY WILMOT was a soldier in the unfortunate but un- avoidable War of Secession, having taken up arms in the Southern cause imme- diately after his State withdrew from the Union. Elected captain of his company, the youngest of that rank in the regiment, he fought, with that courage and forti- tude which he had inherited from his forbears, from Manassas to Franklin; and no man could say he ever fainted through it all except from loss of blood, that he ever faltered when the time to charge arrived, or that he ever failed to find the hottest part of the battle- ground. 40 Colonel and Congressman 41 Two days before the battle of Franklin he was raised to the rank of colonel. But he made his last charge on that memora- ble day, receiving two desperate wounds, either of which would have disabled him from further service on the field. Though not of a towering, brilliant in- tellect, Colonel Wilmot possessed one of those rugged, well-balanced, persistent minds which never refuses to acknow- ledge its error, and which never knows when to stop thinking until the goal of understanding is reached. This was especially true of his later life ; for when at the close of the war, he, like all true patriots, set about repairing his fallen fortunes, and helping to restore the peace and prosperity of the country, it was most natural that his physical condition should have made him a thinker, rather than a laborer. To this circumstance, we of Willow Springs became indebted for the ad- vanced position our community took as an educational, industrial, business cen- tre. It was his mind that saw what we 42 The Teller's Tale needed; it was his enterprise that told us how to get it; it was his judgment that guided us to success afterward. Colonel Wilmot was an illustration of the fact that modesty is not an attribute of negative characters only, and that it is a quality becoming to man as well as woman; for, with all his unassuming manner, when the opportune time came he was found not only possessed of positive convictions, but aggressive in stating them to others. Not only this, but his life and work showed that a philosopher need not be a recluse, but, on the other hand, he may be an active participant in the public and private duties which lie about him. This is true. Unless he does test his own philosophy in the school of example he may gradually diverge from the line of practicality, and become the exponent of theories which no one ever will or ever can reduce to successful use. Under Colonel Wilmot 's instruction, we followed three rules in building and operating our enterprises: We calcu- Colonel and Congressman 43 lated the cost and expected profits; we selected the best materials and ma- chinery, regardless of price; and we employed the most capable workmen, regardless of salary. Rarely accepting any office or position himself, and forcing the desire for place and power to sink into the one purpose of common success, he was enabled to avoid any jealousies or envyings, to fore- stall dissensions, and to miss the shafts of malice which are hurled at the heads of many able men. While this disposition kept his mind free from selfish ambitions, the achieve- ment of which can be of no lasting good to any one, it did not prevent him from being the reserve power upon which we relied in every emergency. What a delightful condition! If all men could be so blessed there would be no hindrance to the mind. There would be nothing to impede the free, independ- ent, and undisturbed progress of thought in its dominion over the universe. Under such circumstances, it is no 44 The Teller's Tale wonder that Colonel Wilmot was in the habit of going to the bottom of every question, and not only banishing the ordinary hindrances to success, but of pushing out beyond the ken of his fellows and reducing to practice those things which before had been in the domain of theory; of exploding useless and illogical theories when they stood in the way of progress; and of believing whatever he found to be true, whether based upon a preconceived theory or not. As an original thinker, he had no pa- tience with the idea that there should be, in the business methods of men, any more than in their legal relations, such a thing as a wrong without a remedy, or an error without a truth to work its elimi- nation. And to him, this became a vision which he followed with the same sense of interest and duty that causes the disciples of ^Esculapius to command that there shall be neither rest nor recreation until the time shall come when there is an adequate antidote for every poison, a Colonel and Congressman 45 cure for every pain, a solace for every physical woe, and no disease without its perfect remedy. Prior to the war the enterprise and material thought of the South had been enthralled by the system of negro slavery not only because that system gave us riches without enterprise, but because the capacity of the negro was not equal to the labor involved in mak- ing enterprises successful. The time having arrived for the South herself to be free, as well as her negroes, and to diversify and increase her business intelligently, she needed men like Colonel Wilmot. We shall find that the North also needed him, that he was thinking for the whole country, and that the whole country has cause to bestow gratitude upon him ungrudgingly. This was the father of Alice Wilmot planter, manufacturer, banker, man-of- affairs, thinker, Christian. A director in the County Bank, the in- terests of Colonel Wilmot there were two- fold: besides looking after the interests 46 The Teller's Tale of the Bank, he took a fatherly concern in the young men employed there their fidelity, their proper aspirations, and their attachments. But, above all, it was in his family that unit of good government, founded on authority, obedience, and love that he exhibited those refinements of con- sideration, feeling, speech, and devotion, which made him the idol of a wife and daughter, whose tender affections fol- lowed him into the world and made evil seem an impossibility to him. It is no wonder that Alice loved him more dearly, and confided in him more fully, as the years came on; and that she found greater pleasure in cultivating her mind and body under his direction, and in taking diversion in the ways pointed out by him and her mother, than she could possibly have discovered along the dubious paths where the world gives pressing invitation. Mr. Blair Congressman Blair was in most par- Colonel and Congressman 47 ticulars as unlike Colonel Wilmot, as one reputable citizen could be unlike another. He did not understand either of the two policies of modern business, one of which is based upon negro labor, the other upon white labor. We may say, in passing, that those who pursue one of these policies find great profit in managing the negro through his inclinations and necessities, and grow rich upon his toil, their policy being the ante-bellum idea modified to meet the changed relations between the white man and the negro. Those who pursue the other policy believe in developing the country by the use of intelligent white labor in the operation of modern ma- chinery ; and they set up the proposition that, by manufacturing our raw mate- rials at home and husbanding our re- sources here, we can send the finished products abroad multiplied many times in value, and make them the foundation of a material prosperity in banking, in- surance, manufacture, intensified agricul- ture, electricity, architecture, etc. far 48 The Teller's Tale beyond our present conceptions of what prosperity means. Inheriting a taste for politics from his ancestors, and having the same culti- vated in the not over-ratified atmosphere of post-bellum election and law-making practices, Mr. Blair was enamored of nothing not even his profession, the law except as it helped to shoulder him upward and onward to political preferment. And that was perfectly natural, since business and politics do not any more mix than the plodding methods of ac- quiring a competency harmonize with a gambler's chances or a schemer's near- cuts to wealth. Mr. Blair had his eye on a seat in Con- gress before accepting the position of judge, and it is said that he cast not a few anchors toward the goal of his ambi- tion while presiding with dignity over the court. How often is it that office-holding de- generates into money-making, and the ambitious mind veers from the paths Colonel and Congressman 49 of intellectuality to those of absolute sordidness! This comes from the desire of the man of small means to move in the style of his wealthy official associate. And in this tendency democracy might well establish her protest against the growing plutocracy of the times. Having once observed the inequality of station which often results from wealth rather than brains, it does not take the person of ordinary individuality long to become a convert to the idea that money is everything. And when he does, he is not apt to be over-scrupulous as to the way he will add to his holdings. The fact that Mr. Blair was a judge, then a congressman, never offered itself to Arthur St. John as a reason why he should love Mary Blair for he had loved her long before. Nevertheless, the bare fact of the relationship makes Mr. Blair of interest to us; for an interesting girl's father would be interesting, though he were no more than that necessary evil, a man, not a congressman. Frankly speaking, a congressman is 50 The Teller's Tale ordinarily only a politician; and we must admit that a politician does not represent that development of moral and intellectual life which should make his position enviable or his daughter proud above her fellow-women. In fact, the average politician is a pre- tender, standing for measures he does not believe in, and promising reforms he knows to be impossible of accomplish- ment. He wins popular favor by assuming originality of thought and independence of speech, while, in reality, he sizes up his crowd and tells them, in language usually borrowed from others, what he knows they already believe, caring not a whit whether it be true or false. More than this, the prevailing and successful type of politician is worse than a mere trimmer; he is a self-centred, self-seeking egoist, whose knowledge is superficial and theoretical, rather than thorough and practical; and, having to play so many roles and be all things to so many people, he generally closes out his career without playing any part very Colonel and Congressman 51 well, and without having been very much to anybody. A stranded ship, without wind or wave, is no more a wreck than a politician with- out a job. Knowing in advance the help- lessness of this estate, it is small wonder that the occupation does not tend to the cultivation of that independence of thought and character which are neces- sary attributes of the statesman a character with whom the politician is oftentimes confused. Many congressmen are politicians. A few are statesmen. And as we proceed with this narrative we hope to be able to place Mr. Blair in the class to which he belongs, if we have not already done so. At the time our story begins, it was said that he wished to give up his seat in Congress and take from his party (then in power) an important post as foreign minister. CHAPTER VIII THE BLAIRS AT HOME business venture, being cap- italized with money, is expected to produce money. In other words, it is expected to pay dividends by the repro- duction of its capital ; and its success de- pends upon its 'ability to do so. Matrimony, being capitalized with love, is expected to produce love ; and its success depends upon its ability to de- clare dividends out of its earnings. And, as dollars and cents are the high- est exponents of money, so, human beings are the highest exponents of love. Gener- ally speaking, therefore, matrimonial alliances which do not conform to the rule of reproduction by declaring regular dividends in kind, are failures. And this suggests the answer to much that has 52 The Blairs at Home 53 been written on the question as to whether or not marriage is a failure. But some marriages which are matri- monial in form, are not so in fact; and, as matrimonial unions, they are failures from the beginning: Not being capital- ized with love, they do not produce love. For we can only reap what we have sown. This suggests to me a glance into the home of the Blairs, that we may see how they lived and moved and had their being. Mrs. Blair was a daughter of the Old South, having been born early enough to taste the sweets of plenty, and to catch, in memory and tradition, an impression of the sumptuousness of that former time ; which circumstance, combined with the fact that she was an only daughter, filled her otherwise beautiful character with a selfishness calculated to destroy contentment and weaken some of the other fruits of a Christian spirit. With these inclinations to begin with, it is no wonder that she should have wedded a man who looked through golden glasses with silver rims, the focus 54 The Teller's Tale of which was always fixed on the al- mighty dollar and the ambitions and pleasure that go with money. And, as an exponent of love a dividend paid out of their accumulated affections, it is no wonder that Mary Blair, their only child, should have exhausted their capi- tal, surplus, and undivided profits. In the rearing of children, we sow seeds of self-sacrifice; and, in their lives and character, if our work has been well done, we reap a harvest of love an hundred-fold greater than the seeds we have sown. In the case of the Blairs, the wonder is that the Lord did not take from them the talents so little cultivated. Probably He did. Perhaps He accomplished this pur- pose in Mary. For if she was lovable, and they were not, was she not as far from them as night is from day, as vice is from virtue, as right is from wrong ? Since Mr. Blair had no son to inherit his name, and take up the struggle for honors where he should leave off, it was but natural (as already hinted at) that he should be all the more anxious that his The Blairs at Home 55 daughter should make her position secure by wedding a man already able to confer a great name, as well as fortune, upon her. And in this ambition Mrs. Blair shared equally with him. Congress was still in the midst of the long session; but Mr. Blair, having been assured of his appointment to a foreign mission, and not being therefore a can- didate for re-election, was allowing the duties of his membership to rest lightly upon him. He liked society more than ever now, for the reason that society was liking him more, in view of the new honors which were coming his way. While a member of the lower house is an important personage at home, Wash- ington does not take him seriously, for the very good reason that he is so numer- ous that there is not seriousness enough to go round. Therefore, in Washington, he is only a person. But a minister, like a senator, is differ- ent. He is a personage; and if he does not get the good things it is because he refuses them outright. 56 The Teller's Tale Mr. Blair was at home for the purpose of accompanying Mrs. Blair and Mary back to Washington, where he wished to have them remain for the balance of the session. In the living room at home, father and mother were painting a picture of Wash- ington and its pleasures, not only for Washington's sake, but with reference to its advantages as a preparatory school for the fetes which the family were to enjoy in the social life of a minister. "Father, I do not see how I am to go; I have accepted a place on the entertain- ment committee for the bankers' meeting next month. It will be the swellest time we 've ever had in Willow Springs, with all those nice visitors here." "Daughter, how can you be so short- sighted? Just as a nickel placed against the eye would obscure a mountain of gold, so you allow a little collection of bankers here in this State (most of whom borrow their money from New York), with their country manners, to shut out the splendid company of wealth and re- The Blairs at Home 57 finement awaiting you and your mother in Washington.'* "But, father, I like these people their 'country manners,' and all. We have never had a State meeting here whose representatives were not delight- ful guests ; and, as I am fond of bankers anyway, I am looking forward to this meeting with much anticipation. Be- sides, not having yet put away childish things, I am still fond of nickels." "But would you not enjoy the large social life, after you had once gotten out of the trend of this little existence you have down here? For, granting that these people are all that they try to be, or hope to be, that is not much. This meeting will only last a few days, and then even your nickel is denied you." "Mr. Blair, do you not understand that Mary is to go with Arthur to the bank- ers' banquet ; that he is the toy of child- hood to which she clings the "nickel" that is here before the bankers' meeting, and will be after it, and all the time? Just where she should have gotten so 58 The Teller's Tale much sentiment, I am sure I do not know, unless by an atavism whereof the other Blairs have no record. But it is true; and I believe she was under the same spell of sentimentality when she had us promise long ago that we would instruct her, but not cross her, in the matter of love and marriage." Mary had stepped out just before her mother began speaking; and when she came in again it was arranged that Mr. and Mrs. Blair should go on to Washing- ton then, and that Mary should remain in Willow Springs as the guest of Alice Wilmot until after the meeting of the bankers, and then join them in Wash- ington. "Love in a cottage" may be an iri- descent dream; but it is one which the world has believed in so long that the habit is now incurable, even with people otherwise indifferent. CHAPTER IX THE BANKERS' MEETING WILLOW SPRINGS has long been known as the "convention city" of this portion of the State, and all the organized bodies, whether social, indus- trial, educational, secular, or religious, have partaken of the open-door hos- pitality of her people. In May, - , the State Bankers' As- sociation paid us their first visit, the invitation of our bankers and other busi- ness men having been accepted at the annual meeting the year before. The occasion was a notable one, on account of the wealth and business acu- men of the members present, the tre- mendous interests they represented, the important character of the questions dis- cussed, and the business transacted; also 59 60 The Teller's Tale fertile splendid entertainment, public and private, accorded them as our guests. We have to shut our eyes to a bad thing sometimes ; or, at least, the best of us do so, which is some argument in its favor. I am reminded of this now by re- calling the fact that, although ours is, conspicuously, a "dry" town, the local committee had what they denominated a "high -ball" corner, fitted up in a con- venient place, the refreshments wherein were not the least appreciated of our hospitalities. One of the evenings of their stay with us was given over to a banquet, where brilliant toasts were said, an attractive menu was served, and music and mirth delighted mind and heart; and happy indeed were the strong men and hand- some women who, conscious of their strength and beauty, vied with one an- other in the exchange of those clever conceptions which are the condiments of thought that make intellectual inter- course a feast of reason and a flow of soul. Albert and Arthur were conspicuously The Bankers' Meeting 61 the most alert and popular of the young men who directed the dispensation of hospitality, while Alice and Mary were the bright particular stars in the galaxy of gracious young girls whose presence was a benediction to the assembly. And of all the people of every calling, who have been entertained by us, I think it safe to say that none have ever evi- denced such genuine pleasure as beamed from the countenances of our men of finance on that evening. Nor do I believe I have ever seen even a frolicsome set of youngsters more over- joyed than they were the day we drove them across Town Creek to Big Lake, and gave them an old-fashioned barbecue of mutton and beef, with broiled carp fresh from the water. As I observed their delight, and en- tered into their merry-making, I could not help but conclude that their jovial light -heartedness could be accounted for in the wonderful mental relaxation which had come to them in laying aside their business for the occasion; and that their 62 The Teller's Tale demeanor and feelings not only showed how great had been the relaxation, and how great is the ordinary nervous strain under which they work and live, but the need they have for periods of recreation and rest. Not only this, but it also occurred to me that, if possible, their methods of business should be so modified as to make their work less trying on the ner- vous forces. The knitted brow, the drawn muscles, and the serious expression are evidences of trouble in conception, worry in details, and weariness in watching and waiting, all of which show there is in the ma- chinery of the business, somewhere or somehow, a friction between the things to be done and the mental forces neces- sary to their accomplishment which ought to be overcome. For the ma- chinery of human endeavor, when prop- erly set up, ought to be as frictionless as the machinery constructed of wood and steel. The feature of the meeting, however, The Bankers' Meeting 63 which excited the interest of those pres- ent, as well as the interest of the entire State afterwards, even more than our skill for entertainment, was the paper read by Colonel Wilmot at the final ses- sion. This paper was entitled " How Shall We Know ? ' ' and dealt with a ques- tion to which he had given serious thought, even for months before the request came from the Association's committee asking that he should prepare a paper on some "live" topic to be chosen by himself. We may say, in passing, that there is not the least reason to doubt that the subject presented fulfilled the require- ments. The paper contained a discussion of that feature of the banking business which enables the subordinate officers and employees to exercise dominion over the assets and liabilities of the bank. For instance, the teller, as the receiver of deposits, may by himself alone, and with the bare touch of a pen, increase the bank's liabilities to an indefinite extent. The teller receives the money deposited 64 The Teller's Tale and he pays out the money withdrawn. He may enter all the money he receives on the books of the bank, or he may leave off some entries and put the money in his pocket; and the cashier and others will know what the books show, but not what the pocket contains. The teller is expected to make the books show all he has received, to put it all together in the bank, and not put any of it in his pocket ; but, in this case, as in others, it is the unexpected that frequently happens ; and many banks know, to their sorrow, that they have become liable for large sums of money which they never used and never saw, for they are as liable for the money the teller puts in his pocket as they are for that which is shown on the books and placed in the bank's vault. The person who pays the money to the teller and takes his receipt for it, does not know whether his deposit is recorded in the books of the bank or not. If it is, the other people in the bank will know it, but if it is not, they will not know it, and not count it among the liabilities of the bank. Colonel Wilmot reading his paper at the bankers' meeting. The Bankers' Meeting 65 By failing to enter sums deposited and appropriating them to his own use, or holding them in his possession, a teller may personally accumulate large sums of money. When checks against these un- entered deposits are presented he may pay them from this held-out fund, and in this way escape detection; though he usually makes abstractions from, or with- holds from the books, only such deposits as he has every reason to believe will not be drawn on soon by the depositors. Not only may deposits be withheld from the books and the vault when received, but the teller, bookkeeper, or other subordinate may so manipulate the books or papers in his possession or under his control, either by himself or in conjunction with another employee or an outsider, as to withhold collections or withdraw deposits unlawfully. Take the bookkeeper, for instance. When a check is presented to the teller, it is he who must say whether it is good. How easy it is for him to call a check good, which is not good, allow a 66 The Teller's Tale confederate to draw money on it, charge this to some inactive account, and risk the chances of making a fortune in specu- lation before the likelihood of discovery. And, like the teller, if this account be- comes active and the depositor draws upon it, his check is paid, and, if need be, charged to some other inactive account. Under the present system, this might be kept up without detection indefinitely, for the reason that the subordinates know the depositors and their habits, while the officers do not know the de- positors and are not, systematically, brought in touch with them. The note teller, the collector, the mes- senger boy all, have abundant oppor- tunities of the same or similar kind ; and so frequently do defalcations occur that the world expects to hear, ever and anon, that some teller, or one of the others mentioned, has been playing the races, bucket shops, fast society, etc., for months, and even years, at the ex- pense of the bank he is supposed to serve; and we refuse to be startled at The Bankers' Meeting 67 the head-lines when these things are an- nounced in the papers. The paramount difficulty with the business is that there is no way by which a bank can ascertain at any given time just what its condition is just what it owes, for the reason that its stock- holders' committee can only examine its own books, which will not show its true condition when some deposits have never been entered on the books and others have been unlawfully withdrawn, both of which sums are unknown quantities. The banks therefore need some rule, custom, or law, by which a committee of the stockholders can ascertain the en- tered and unentered deposits, the law- fully and the unlawfully withdrawn deposits, the assets and liabilities of all kind, and thus know the condition of the bank as completely, as accurately, as the merchant or manufacturer, or other busi- ness man, may know his condition, where there is no one but himself to increase liability by signing or endorsing notes or papers. And this is not a question 68 The Teller's Tale of trusting our fellowmen, so much as it is the question of being able to ascertain whether or not we have trusted wisely. In order that the stockholders may know their bank's real condition, they must be brought face to face with all the people, both debtors and creditors, who sustain business relations with the bank; but as the unentered deposits belong to people whose names are not on the books and are unknown to the stockholders; and, further, since it is impossible to have personal interviews with all those whose names do so appear, on the same day or otherwise, with the view of ascertaining if their accounts be stated as they un- derstand them, Colonel Wilmot declared that the only way to reach every actual and possible depositor or other creditor, and every debtor, would be a law making a published statement of the bank's con- dition binding on all interested parties, unless they should report to the commit- tee of the bank, for correction, within a given time, any errors that might be found in such statement. The Bankers' Meeting 69 In this connection, Colonel Wilmot pointed out the practice under the law of publishing notices in the papers to ascertain who are the creditors of a de- ceased person's estate, and he did not think it more important to get such in- formation in that case, than in the case of a bank while it is living. For the in- tegrity of the bank is the foundation of the community's business, and in its keeping are lodged the fortunes of a multitude. We observe, in passing, that by the fullest use of banks of deposit for the safe keeping of our funds and the con- venience of business, and the conse- quent use of bank checks for paying our bills at home and abroad, we may trans- act at least ninety-nine one-hundredths of the business of the world without actu- ally handling any money. This enables us to do our business on a hundredth part of the money we would employ if there were no banks. It enables the money we have any given volume to do ninety-nine times the service or work 70 The Teller's Tale it could do if there were no banks, and its working value is therefore and thereby enhanced ninety -nine times. Since this economy in the use of actual money enables the proprietor and the employer to have more work done and, practically, furnishes more money with which to pay labor, banks and banking are found to touch the lives of more people than any other institution, except the Church, and to be benefactors to every man in every walk of life. This being the case, and the safety of the bank being assured, we are under a business, as well as a moral, obligation to give the bank our fullest support. We make progress in some matters rapidly, breaking away from ancient rules and methods, or modifying them according to the demands of justice, while in other matters we hold to the old rules and methods absolutely, even when modification would appear as the essen- tial and necessary thing. According to the established rule, the teller in the employ of the bank, being The Bankers' Meeting 71 the agent of the bank, binds the bank for the safe-keeping and return of all the deposits received by him, no matter whether he is faithful to the bank or not, because he is placed there by the bank for the purpose of receiving deposits. This is the rule, and a proper rule ; but there is no reason why, by notices prop- erly given, the depositor should not be required to make his initial deposit only with the knowledge of the officers of the bank. It is also a reasonable limitation on the rule to say that the bank is to be bound only with the distinct understanding that it shall have the right to have the acts of the teller and other employees inquired into, at stated times, and the accounts made by them, and kept by them, with depositors and others, reconciled and ad- justed; such reconciliation to be made by a committee of stockholders on proper notices and publications. The interests of the banking busi- ness require these modifications of the rule stated: the interests of the public 72 The Teller's Tale demand them, and the common-sense and judgment of men everywhere will ap- plaud them as the most important busi- ness reforms that have taken place at any time. Colonel Wilmot said that watchfulness offered no solution of the difficulty; for if it were possible for an officer or a director to be present and witness the counting of every dollar that falls on the deal board, such an exhibition of espion- age and distrust would be apparent to the customer on the other side of the wicket and destroy his confidence. Be- sides, even an officer or director goes wrong sometimes. Under the present system it is neces- sary for the officers to be watchful and vigilant every moment of the business hours, and it is this high tension of watch- ing, coupled with the knowledge that vigilance vouchsafes no absolute protec- tion, that undermines the banker's health and makes him old before his time. Some have innocently imagined that the banker's worry was his loans, his bills The Bankers' Meeting 73 payable, or his fear of burglaries; but not so. He may reduce the considera- tion of these things to steady, honest work; and work never kills. Colonel Wilmot laid bare the fact that there was not only no definite way, under custom or the law, by which the owner of a bank could ascertain its true condition, but that the environments were such as to tempt employees, young and old, into habits of extravagance, speculation, defalcation, and ruin, for the reason that the acts of dishonesty which occur in any business or trust are in proportion to the value of the things entrusted to the employees, and the facility or ease with which concealment of the wrong can be made. The prevailing system of banking is indeed a manufactory of its own peculiar brand of vice, and a tempter of weak humanity; for very few peculations are begun with the intention of perma- nently depriving the bank of the money taken, but to conceal the taking, use it for profit, and return it or replace it 74 The Teller's Tale afterwards without loss reference being had, of course, to the wrong-doings of trusted employees, especially the young, and not to hardened criminals who break through and steal. Colonel Wilmot pleaded for improve- ment, for approaching the ideal as nearly as possible. He admitted that the banks might go on indefinitely in their un- satisfactory methods, for people like to be humbugged up to a certain point. But this is no consolation to the banks when they are being humbugged themselves. Colonel Wilmot did not advocate the adoption of any rule or the passing of any law for the benefit of the banks, and to enable them to answer the important question, unless the same should be a manifestly just one just to the public who deposit their money, as well as to the stockholders who invest theirs; not that such rule or law should be tested by the standard of perfectness, but rather upon the inquiry: Does it guarantee the greatest good to the greatest number? This question being answered in the The Bankers' Meeting 75 affirmative, it should stand, although, in some instances, not because of the rule or law, but because of nonconformity to it, harm may befall a few. In the following chapter I give Colonel Wilmot's paper, omitting preliminary matters and some of the things already commented on very fully herein. While I fear the lay mind does not anticipate much pleasure in reading this paper, I wish to assure such readers to the contrary; for the contents are not only of surpassing interest to everybody, but they concern, vitally, the fortunes of those whose lives we are following along the road of destiny, Albert, Arthur, Mary, Alice. We sometimes think the dinner too long, too substantial, or a little dry, and the dessert a little hard to overtake. But the prudent diner-out will carefully and patiently eat, remembering that the first courses not only give muscle and life, and capacity to enjoy the dessert, but that waiting makes it all the better when we do catch up with it. CHAPTER X HOW SHALL WE KNOW? 1 IT is a familiar saying worthy of ac- ceptation, that vice runs ahead of virtue; for the devil is smart as well as mean. But this is no reason why we should allow vice to remain secure in any advantage which it has gained. We should be as wise as serpents. If we keep moving on the strongholds of evil- driving the devil from post to pillar we may be at his final chaining one of these days and escape him altogether thereafter. Just at present vice is decidedly in the 1 For the benefit of those who are not interested in the banking question which this publication under- takes to answer, but who will read the book for the story alone, the author wishes to state that this chapter and the chapter entitled "The Law" may be omitted without any loss to them. 76 How Shall We Know? 77 lead, as a multitude of instances do abundantly witness, and it would take the eye of a prophet joined to a heart of faith, to see the millennium even in the distant future. As bankers, we are con- cerned most about that form of vice which we feel most which affects most our business, namely, the embezzle- ment of our funds by trusted employees. In fact, whether we are all willing to admit it or not, there is abiding with us a feeling of insecurity because we have found no adequate protection against such occurrences. We make our physical positions perfect with vaults, combinations, time-locks, etc.; and our methods of examination are as good as can be devised under the present banking system of rules and laws. In most businesses the present system would be sufficient; but not so with us. We are not only beset by foes without, but by those within, as well persons who occupy subordinate posi- tions, so-called, but from whom the "big fellows" of the concern must obtain 78 The Teller's Tale their information as to the real condition of things. The head of the bank is not master of the situation. The subordi- nates not only know the condition of the bank but practically make its history. A teller or bookkeeper may, by the scratch of a pen, obligate us to pay thou- sands of dollars which may not become a part of our assets, and of which there may not be a record; and we may become, and be, insolvent while the ex- aminer or auditing committee is report- ing us prosperous and happy. By a mere manipulation of figures in our portfolios, an unlawful disappearance of the funds held in trust by us may be made to ap- pear as lawful : seemingly, our liability is cancelled, but in reality it is the same. It is the asset which has disappeared altogether. This is an anomalous condition, but one we should face fairly, intelligently, and in a practical way. We should act upon that which we do know : that those in positions of trust with us do take ad- vantage of their ability to keep us ignor- How Shall We Know? 79 ant of the true condition of the bank; and they do this to our hurt and the hurt of our customers. That they have done so at every point of the compass, and in every section of every country on earth, falsified entries, unentered credits, and vaults emptied of thousands, do most positively attest; and this they will continue to do until a plan is adopted by which every possible, effectual act of every officer of, and every worker in, the bank may be regularly reviewed by his fellows and by the bank's committee of stockholders. Sometimes our ignorance has been taken advantage of in one way, some- times in another; and generally as each fraud brought to light another plan of the defrauder, some remedy has been found which would prevent the thing's being done in that particular way so easy again; but up to this time no plan has been suggested by which the stockholders or anybody else may know absolutely just what the bank's liabilities are. 8o The Teller's Tale What if the National examiner or the State examiner does come around occa- sionally and go over our cash, our notes, and our exchanges, and check up by correspondence the amount of money we have in other banks? What does this avail, even if we admit that he can check up our assets, since he does not and can- not ascertain and test by comparison or correspondence, the amounts we owe our hundreds of depositors and others ? no ; not even the amounts which appear on the books, to say nothing of those sums which may not be entered on the books. He does not therefore test the work of the bank as a whole, much less the separate work of the several employees therein. What would we think of the architect or contractor who, in placing his founda- tion, should ascertain the weight of the building, but neglect to test the capacity of the earth to support this weight ? His foolishness would not be unlike that of the bank examiner or bank committee, in the one-sided, half -proving test which How Shall We Know? 81 they would make. The one may result in cracked walls and fallen buildings ; the other, in financial disaster. Realizing that if we can answer the question propounded by the subject of this paper, we are safe, while otherwise there is no safety, I have undertaken in this paper to open up a plain and prac- tical method an entirely feasible way by which this information can be had at a very small annual expense, and the lia- bilities and general condition of banks and banking institutions of all kind ac- tually and legally determined. We are at present working wholly on the faith we have in the integrity of our fellowmen, which is very good when there is integrity; but what if there should not happen to be integrity, and stability, and strength of character suffi- cient to stay them in the daily and hourly temptation which becomes the besetting sin? Is it our purpose to go forward, progressing in the business of banking, which is yet in its infancy? If so, how much farther can we go in the dark? 6 82 The Teller's Tale I know it is as impossible to stand still in the banking business as in the others. We must advance or recede. We cannot advance unless we overcome the one difficulty that stands in the way of every bank on earth. It will destroy us unless we destroy it. This is true for two reasons at least: (i) The fact that funds can be taken, and the taking concealed from the officers, is known to every bank employee in the world, which knowledge is to them both a suggestion and a temp- tation to use the bank's funds for un- lawful purposes; (2) this knowledge has also travelled to the reading public, and the intelligent depositor knows that his deposit may not be held safely, not- withstanding the integrity of the man- agement. It is impossible that such knowledge should fail to have its influence against the continued and increasing use of the banks by the public. For whatever may be said of the many employees who have been faithful with the millions entrusted to them, and who have never betrayed How Shall We Know? 83 a trust, our experience and observation teach us that no amount of confidence is equal to the feeling which conies from absolute knowledge. And we know that every person's efforts to do right may be strengthened by the knowledge that his every act will be reviewed by others. We know human nature too well. We know the desire for wealth which comes to the poor man who handles thousands for the rich daily, as well as the greed of the rich for more. We know the easy stages by which the honest man takes the journey along the road of extrava- gance, speculation, defalcation, and ruin. As long as there is a tempter, men will fall into temptation; and our falling is most likely when there is an opportunity to conceal the wrong. "Opportunity (to take and conceal) makes the thief." If we add to this the fact that the wrong to be done promises the gratification of some strong natural desire, like greed, the temptation becomes almost irresistible. Shall we continue to handle our neigh- bor's money in this wise ? Have we the 84 The Teller s Tale heart to repeat that prayer "Lead us not into temptation," when we are daily ex- posing our fellowmen to the greatest of temptations ? That is what we are doing exposing them to temptations, I mean; for no doubt many of us omit the prayer altogether. I repeat again,with emphasis, that, after a close study of, and much practical ex- perience with, the business operations of a bank of deposit, I am convinced that there is now no certain means employed by the officers and auditing committees by which they may ascertain the bank's legal liabilities as incurred by their au- thorized agents. I refer especially to the work of the tellers and bookkeepers, who control the initial sources of liability. The plan I propose for giving this knowledge to the owners of the bank is a twofold one, imposing duties on the bank's committee and on the public who deal with the bank. I would bring the stockholders, their committees, and higher officials, in contact with the depositors and other customers of the bank, so that How Shall We Know? 85 each should know that the books of the bank and the books, or other evidences of debt, in the hands of the customers, are in accord. I would put a stop to the way the teller and bookkeeper have of "playing the middle against the two ends," because in such a game the ad- vantage is always with the middle. But how shall they know this? How shall it be done? It is a matter which must be handled carefully and with delicacy, at first, since the depositor must not be im- pressed with the idea that there is any doubt (and there should be none) as to the correctness of his account as recorded on the books of the bank; and he will not be so impressed, provided the sit- uation and method are properly laid be- fore him. My plan is this : Let the bank have the following printed at the head of the page of the pass-book in which the first entry is made: "It is a rule of this bank to ascertain and fix, at stated times, definitely and 86 The Teller's Tale exactly, its legal liabilities; and, with this end in view, it will publish, from time to time, detailed accounts of every character of its business, omitting the names of its depositors and other credit- ors, as well as its debtors, but using a number to correspond with each item or account. Such publications will be made for the purpose of giving notice to all persons concerned, in order that they may have their accounts adjusted and reconciled in case the sums set opposite their publication numbers do not agree with the balances shown by their pass- books and other evidences of account. Your account number in the publica- tions to be made will be - . "Your attention is especially called to the fact that this bank will not correct, or be responsible for, errors in your ac- count unless complaint be made to the publication committee of the bank within thirty days from the completion of the publication showing an error. Publications, until further notice, will be made in the once How Shall We Know? 87 a week for four successive weeks, and at least eight times in each year. "Do NOT TAKE THIS BOOK OUT WITH- OUT GOING TO THE PRESIDENT OR CASHIER AND HAVING HIM SIGN THIS NOTICE AND GIVE YOU A PUBLICATION NUMBER, FOR THIS MUST NOT BE DONE BY ANY OTHER PERSON. Cashier." When the teller first arranges the pass- book and writes the depositor's name in it, I would have him give a publication number to the account and ask the de- positor to step back to the cashier's desk and have his name, signature, and num- ber recorded for future publication. The same rule should be observed when it is a time certificate of deposit, the giving of a promissory note, or any other transac- tion. The publication number should be one that would easily identify the account to both the depositor and the committee of the bank. In addition to the above, I would re- quire the customers to sign statements at least once a year showing that a The Teller's Tale given publication, already completed, correctly states their relations to the bank, naming in each case what that re- lation is. These should be written by the customer, so that they might be com- pared with his authorized signature on file with the bank. We would then have an actual, as well as legal, reconciliation between the books of the bank and the books of the depositor. The pass-book ought to be balanced once a month, and an additional rule should be adopted and printed therein requiring the depositor to have it so balanced, and to exhibit it to the cashier at that time. The publications should also state that they are made for the purpose of recon- ciling accounts and other business mat- ters between the bank and those who have any business relations whatever with it. It should again warn customers of the necessity of responding to the no- tices whenever differences are observed to exist; and it should warn the public that if there are depositors or customers, How Shall We Know? 89 other than those whose numbers appear in the published reports, they must come forward and make their claims known to the committee within, say, sixty days, and that a failure to come forward will bar their claims. There is every reason to believe the courts would decide that the notices given the bank's customer by publica- tion would be sufficient to prevent his re- covering from the bank after a given time, provided, of course, the bank had really lost anything by the customer's failure to make his claim in time. Cer- tain it is that sufficient legislation could be had to enforce reasonable rules along the lines indicated, so as to protect the bank against all claims not propounded within a given time, whether there was actual notice to the customer or not. Independent of the law, as it exists, or as it might be passed for the protection of the banks in enforcing such rules, every customer would observe with care the published notices, and thus the facts themselves would be known and the go The Teller's Tale rights of all parties understood and pro- tected. There would be no excuse for ignorance of the true condition of the bank, both as to assets and liabilities; the committee who checked up the busi- ness and the published notices would be certain of the facts certified to, and this certainty would give a feeling of security to them which would be imparted to others. With the adoption of this plan and the same put into general practice, I believe there would be given to the business of banking, not only for banking's sake, but for security's sake as well, such an impetus as it has never felt before, and all the money of the country would be kept in banks and, practically, all the business would be done through them. On the other hand, without the abso- lute knowledge which such a plan would give, the banks cannot keep up the con- fidence which now exists. They are bound to lose some of the ground already gained. They will do this even where the bank is small and there are but few How Shall We Know? 9 1 changes made in its clerical force in the course of several years. But it will be especially true where the bank is a large one and requires the employment of many persons; because the customers of such an institution are beginning to understand that they are not only at the mercy of the large number of people employed therein, but of all the people who may be so employed from time to time. But if we know the president and cashier, in whom we have confidence, and we know their knowledge to be such that no serious wrong can be done and cov- ered from their sight ; and if we know that the work of the president and cashier, and of the whole bank, is carefully re- viewed by a committee of the stock- holders, whose findings are proven and corrected by publications, and made binding on the world, we are absolutely secure in dealing with the institution; and we will soon find this out. We hear a good deal at bankers' con- ventions about confidence being the 92 The Teller's Tale foundation of business. Nevertheless, when we go to the banker at his office and apply for a loan, security is invari- ably demanded; and this leads me to conclude that confidence is meant for the depositor, while security is the proper thing for the banker. Since confidence is the only assurance the depositor has in dealing with the bank, just as it is practically all the as- surance the bank has in dealing with its employees, ought we not to cast up this confidence account occasionally to see what it has cost us? In conclusion, I will say that, from the banker's standpoint at least, confidence is not the foundation of the banking business, but is only a part of the super- structure thereof. Down below it are integrity, the possession of wealth, and the ability to use wealth as capital in the production of more wealth. CHAPTER XI COLONEL WILMOT AND THE BANKERS THE reading of the paper aroused unusual interest. The statements and arguments made in it were generally acknowledged to be true and sound, ex- cept that some of those who joined in the discussion contended that it was un- wise to further advertise the weakness of their position on the question raised, a weakness which they claimed to be in- herent in the nature of the business, and which could be minimized by methods already employed by up-to-date institu- tions, but which could not be cured by any possible means. Said they: " If you intimate to any depositor, or any would- be depositor, that there may be mis- takes made, and that publications may 93 94 The Teller's Tale be necessary to discover and correct the same, or that for any reason there is the remotest doubt as to his ability to with- draw his money at any time, you need not expect to gain or retain his patronage. " The great majority of those at the meeting, however, agreed with Colonel Wilmot, and maintained that the dis- tribution of news and the dissemination of learning were becoming too general among the masses to warrant the belief that their ignorance and credulity could be played upon by pretensions of safety in methods and practices known to be unsafe, even if the interests of the banks demanded that they should be deceived; and that the many recent and extensive losses by banks from the dishonesty of officers and employees, as published by the daily press, were much stronger indi- cations of weakness than the admissions which the bankers themselves would make ; furthermore, that it would be far better to provide a remedy for this weak- ness at once than to allow a knowing public to magnify the dangers to them Colonel Wilmot and the Bankers 95 and to conclude, from the silence and in- activity of the bankers themselves, that there was no remedy. Attention was called to the fact that the banks and bankers themselves were much more interested in the question than the depositors, for the reason that the losses of a bank always fall on the stockholders first, and that even in the larger defalcations which had occurred the losses of the depositors were not total. The consideration of the question so engrossed the minds of the members that some other appointed subjectswere wholly neglected, with a result that a committee was raised, with Colonel Wilmot as its chairman, to present the subject to the State Legislature at the forthcoming January session, and ask for the passing of a law on the subject in harmony with the position taken by Colonel Wilmot in his address and speeches. The agitation thus begun was continued by many of the newspapers of the State- that avenue of communicated thought which is the palladium of our liberties in 96 The Teller's Tale this latter day when the crop of corrup- tion is appalling; and they abated their fight not a whit, although the opposition freely charged them with selfish pur- poses, and declared that it was not on account of any merit in the law that they contended, but because the publications to be made under the law would give them another source of revenue. Frankly, I suspect that there were self -servings which put force and terse- ness, alliteration, and even rhyme, into more than one editorial on the subject. But this argues nothing against the law, any more than the brilliant speech of the attorney argues his client guilty; for generally behind our best efforts are minds firmly fixed on the recompense of reward. The people everywhere discussed the question, and the candidates for the Legislature were required (much against the courage of some of them) to declare themselves on the proposition, many of them being elected or defeated according to the declarations made. Colonel Wilmot and the Bankers 97 On February , - , the law on the subject was passed, having received an overwhelming majority of the votes of the members in both houses of the Legis- lature, the bill having been introduced and championed by Mr. Bowers, then a member of the lower house, now a repre- sentative in Congress from the Sixth District. And the following chapter, but one, sets forth the law as passed, the title and the formal parts being omitted. 7 CHAPTER XII MINISTER AND NOBLEMAN THE home of the Blairs, on West Street, was aglow with light and life, and music and moving figures gave ear and eye the sound and sight of hos- pitality, the commanding centre of which was the distinguished personality of the Hon. Charles Henry Blair, recently ap- pointed Minister to France; for Mrs. Blair and Miss Blair were entertaining in honor of their husband and father. A number of friends from a distance had come on to compliment the former Congressman with their presence. Among others, was the young Count De Mar- tineau, the heir to an extinct French title, who had met Mary Blair with her father at the legation in Washington. 9 8 Minister and Nobleman 99 The Count was an exceedingly agree- able and accomplished young fellow, and thoroughly democratic in his ideas and practices. Mose James, our barber, boasted for many a day afterwards that he had dressed the young nobleman's hair and beard when he was down here as he expressed it, had "served the nobility." On the evening in question, Albert Ward and Arthur St. John were in the private room of Albert, preparing for the entertainment. They had both met the Count at the Blair home the previous evening, he having arrived the day be- fore. "Arthur," said Albert, "what do you think of the Count and his intentions toward Miss Mary?" "I do not know I had not thought," answered Arthur; "but he is a mere friend of the family, I suppose. Or it may be that he wishes to share especially in Mr. Blair's good-will just at this time, so as to obtain a business position with the American Legation in Paris, where the surroundings are more congenial to TOO The Teller's Tale his tastes, and where he is at home. The French nobility, you know, must work for a living like ourselves, as they have no large landed estates to mortgage, as our English cousins have, nor official position and influence to make their notes of hand negotiable." "I think you are wrong, Arthur," said Albert, "for Mrs. Blair told mother some days ago that the Count had pros- pects of inheriting a fortune in the near future. It must be then, that he finds something more attractive in Mr. Blair's power to bestow than secretaryships; and as for congenial surroundings, it seems to me from the Count's demeanor that he would willingly exchange Europe for America, provided Mary Blair were put in to turn the scale. "There is another thing, Arthur, of which we have all heard. Some of the politicians say that Mr. Blair himself has become immensely rich through a con- gressional pool which governed, by legis- lation, the prices of certain stocks in which its members invested, which pool Minister and Nobleman 101 also obtained for its members conces- sions in the newly acquired territory of the United States. It is also said that they made a great deal of money by buying up lands in the West, which were afterwards favored by special legislation. Mr. Blair was also a very stanch friend of a certain officer in the post-office depart- ment at Washington, and his political enemies are saying that trouble is now brewing for that officer and his friends, many of whom will be implicated in dis- closures of fraud yet to be made. "I should be sorry to know that our distinguished fellow - citizen had been guilty of these things, but it seems to me from his style of living that he must have made a great deal more money in Con- gress than his salary amounted to. Now that he is out of Congress and is going abroad, I hope for the sake of his family that his name may be kept out of any scandals which we may have. "Doubtless, our friend, the dapper Count, is well informed as to the financial condition of Mr. Blair; and I suspect 102 The Teller's Tale that he, with the accustomed cunning of his race, may read in the eyes of Mary Blair, largesse as well as love bounty as well as beauty and that he is using his soft Gallic accents for more purposes than one. I do not wish to shake your confidence in any person; but the whole world has turned to materiality, and on top of it all, and biggest of all, is the almighty dollar." "Albert, you are right in the main," said Arthur, after a pause of serious thought; "but I do not go all the way with you. Edmund Burke was it not? said you could not lay a charge broad enough to indict a whole people. While there are many who act according to your estimate of all, there are some who do not. And the beautiful thing about the situation is, that the honest, loving heart can see through the guise of deceit and dishonesty which attempts to conceal the fortune-hunter's real purpose and want of principle; so that, in the end, we all get what we are trying to give, and there is a fair exchange which is no robbery. "That a good woman may appear to Minister and Nobleman 103 be marrying for money does not dis- prove my proposition. Woman loves power in man. It is one of the chief affinities of her heart fixed in her nature by God for her protection the protec- tion of the weak by the strong. And woman marries the rich man, not because he has money, but because of the power he shows in getting it or holding it, just as she marries the statesman, the painter, or the poet (who is usually poor in money) , on account of the power that lies within him, and by which she is attracted. "The Count may be the kind of man you say he is. But as to Mary: while she is attracted by wealth and its ac- companying pleasures, there are other things which interest her. Since she is becoming more settled and her individ- uality stronger, she has ideals higher than your stack of dollars, and will be true to them. Whatever the Count's intentions may be, and whatever the in- tentions of the father and mother may be, I am quite sure that Mary will be guided by her heart alone." 104 The Teller's Tale At the Blairs' that evening, when Al- bert and Alice looked for the young hostess, to say good-night, it was not the Count they found sipping an ice with her on a rustic seat among the palms of the moonlit conservatory. "What are you two doing off here?" said Alice; "and what have you done with the Count? I have not seen him for an hour." "The Count! Oh, he's like 'The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la,' has nothing to do with the case," answered Mary, with a mischievous look at Arthur. A noise, as of breaking twigs, attracted their attention to the far corner of the conservatory. They knew not what it was, nor heard it again. They did not see the dark figure that disappeared through a side door into another part of the building. It was the Count. The next day he terminated his visit and re- turned to Washington. Was Arthur correct in his estimate of the character of Mary Blair? Would she be true to the end ? We shall see. CHAPTER XIII THE LAW SECTION i. Banks, bankers, and others whose business is to receive money on deposit payable on demand or otherwise, may relieve themselves of re- sponsibility for errors in the accounts of depositors and others, when such errors are the result of dishonesty on the part of officers, tellers, bookkeepers, or others employed by them. SEC. 2. In order to obtain relief, stock- holders of banks must comply with the provisions of this Act with reference to the conduct of their business and the publishing of detailed statements of their bank's condition. And the errors re- lieved against will be only those which appear in such published statements. 105 io6 The Teller's Tale SEC. 3. This Act shall not apply to a published error if the person affected by the same, and in whose account the dis- honest error has been made, shall make complaint to the committee of publica- tion of the bank and demand the correc- tion of the same within thirty days from the completion of the publication. SEC. 4. Any bank or banker desir- ing to take advantage of this Act shall, at the time of receiving the initial de- posit of any person or other customer, deliver to him a pass-book in which shall be entered the amount of his deposit, with a printed notice and agreement in said pass-book substantially of the fol- lowing form and effect : (a) "It is a rule of this bank to as- certain and prove at least twice each year the true condition of its assets and liabilities. For that purpose it will pub- lish at such times detailed statements of all assets and liabilities, omitting the names of its depositors and other cus- tomers, but using a number to correspond with each amount, such publication being The Law 107 made for the purpose of giving notice to the depositors and others, and affording them an opportunity to have their ac- counts adjusted and reconciled in case the published amount does not agree with the customer's pass-book, or under- standing of his account or other matter between him and the bank. (b) "Your number in the publication to be made will be , and the publica- tion will be made in - for not less than three successive issues. (c) ' ' This bank will not be responsible for errors in accounts, and other matters between it and others, where publication of the amount shown to be due (the bank or the customers, as the case may be) by the bank's books, has been properly made, unless complaint be made to the publication committee of the bank within thirty days from the completion of the first publication showing such error. (d) "Do not take this book (or other evidence of your standing with the bank) out without having the president or cashier sign this notice in person and io8 The Teller's Tale give you a publication number. No other person is authorized to sign it." SEC. 5. The proof of publication of such notices shall be made in the same manner as in case of notices to non- resident defendants in the Chancery Court, and shall be registered and kept on file in the Chancery Clerk's office sub- ject at all time to the inspection of the public. SEC. 6. The statements to be published shall be made, verified, and signed by a publication committee, which committee shall emanate from a stockholders' meet- ing to be held at least once a year. All complaints of errors in any published statement shall be made to said com- mittee within the time allowed by Sec- tion 3 of this Act; and if complaint be not so made, and a reconciliation re- quested or demanded within such time, the facts detailed in such publication shall be taken and held, as to all errors and omissions not so complained of, as true, and as correctly stating the accounts between the bank and its customers. The Law 109 SEC. 7. Notices must be posted in the lobby of the bank stating that no ac- count will be opened except on a per- sonal interview with the president or cashier, which notices shall cite the fact that publications of all accounts and transactions are made from time to time, in a certain newspaper, for the purpose of reconciling accounts, and warning the public of the consequences of not ex- amining such notices for their own pro- tection; and, furthermore, a standing notice shall be constantly kept in some newspaper having a general circulation in the community of the bank's cus- tomers, which shall give the same warn- ing as the notice in the lobby. SEC. 8. In case the teller or other em- ployee has received a deposit or other initial payment without observing Sec- tion 4 of this Act, the observance of Section 7 by the bank shall cure such omission and give the bank all the rights which this Act confers upon banks which observe Section 4; provided, that this right will be lost if the stockholders fail no The Teller's Tale to discharge from his position, at once, any employee who has failed to observe Section 4. SEC. 9. The provisions of this Act shall not operate to release a bank from liability to a depositor whose account is incorrectly stated, or omitted from the books of the bank, unless the error, or some part of it, has been caused by fraud to the bank's hurt; and in no case shall the bank escape liability to any person in a greater degree than it has suffered loss with respect to that par- ticular account. SEC. 10. The provisions of this Act shall not be construed to exempt dis- honest officers or employees, but they shall be liable personally and on their official bonds to any person who may be wronged or defrauded by their con- duct. And in all cases where this law of publication has been complied with so as to release a bank from liability to a de- frauded party, such party so defrauded shall have all the rights against the offi- cer or employee committing the wrong, The Law m and his bondsmen, as the bank has, or should have had, but for this Act. SEC. ii. The detailed statements of the bank's condition, as prepared for publication, shall be signed by each and every officer and employee of the bank, under a certificate to the effect that such statement is true to the best of their knowledge and belief ; and any one sign- ing such certificate, knowing any part of the same to be untrue, shall, on convic- tion thereof, be liable to punishment by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars, or by confinement in the county jail for not more than twelve months, or by both such fine and imprisonment. SEC. 12. The fees allowed publishers for making a series of three publications, as required under this Act, shall be five cents for each person named therein. Should there be no newspaper willing to publish the notices at that rate, such publications may be made by posting the required notices for three weeks in one or more public places in each com- munity where a depositor resides. CHAPTER XIV LIGHT IN DARK PLACES IT is now many months since the law set out in the preceding chapter was passed, and the banks throughout the State began to comply with its terms ; and already all the virtues which its author claimed for it, and more, have been proved. Nothing predicted by Colonel Wilmot and Mr. Bowers has been more fully de- monstrated than the fact that there were many banks, the rascality of whose em- ployees, or some of them, would be re- vealed by a general uncovering such as the law would bring about. Five banks, in as many different sec- tions of the State, discovered, on making publication of their accounts by number, that many of their depositors had put 112 Light in Dark Places 113 more money in bank, not drawn out, than the books showed, which sums, in some cases, ran up into tens of thousands of dollars; that there were many de- positors whose names were not on the books at all ; and, in one case, that many notes which appeared in the list of bills receivable had been paid in full. In every case but one, it was the vice of gambling in stocks, bonds, grain, cotton, get -rich-quick schemes Alaskan gold mining, rubber plantations in South America, and so forth which had wrought ruin in the life and character of one who had stood as well, who had been reared as well, and whose antecedents were as upright, as anybody in the com- munity. Some of them had yielded to the so-called gentleman's game where the chances were good for a fair profit only, while it required other and larger degrees of certainty and profit a widen- ing of the vortex to catch the con- servative conscience and put it under the spell of speculation. And, let it not be forgotten : during all 8 ii4 The Teller's Tale that time, this great Government of ours was (as it still is) carrying this con- science poison invitations to speculate and steal from its sources of sin and iniquity, and offering it to the minds and hearts of the innocent, sugar-coated with the promises of wealth, and flavored with the expectations of place and power; and for a pitiful penny per each deadly portion carried and delivered. This is the way our mails are used ! This is the way Congress obeys the Constitution's command to "Provide for the general welfare ' ' of the people ! This is not all : if you will run your eye down the line of bank employees in the State, as they existed when this law was passed, and as they exist to-day, you will be struck with the changes that have occurred in their personnel; for some of the positions which once knew bright and outwardly attractive men will know them no more; and the explanation of this is that many banks have discovered ir- regularities and peculations which were not of such a serious nature as to affect Light in Dark Places 1 1 5 the integrity of their business, and which, out of charity or other considerations, they have not allowed to be known beyond their directors' rooms. One sad part about these employees is that they are also shut out from positions of trust elsewhere; for, although the public may have no suspicion of the past and the follies which followed tempta- tion, the fact nevertheless remains that their former employers will, by silence, insinuation, or recommendation (?), put them under the ban of their disappro- bation. Are they inherently worse than others, that they should be hounded, like Throck- morton, by a nemesis to the ends of the earth suspected of men and accused of conscience ? No ; the system under which they worked wrought their ruin; and it alone is responsible for their condition. Other discoveries of the character of the five referred to above were feared almost everywhere ; and nothing but the fullest confidence in the ability and in- tegrity of both officers and employees n6 The Teller's Tale induced depositors and business people to await the completion of publications, so that legal and actual proofs of condition could be made. But, now that this crisis of uncer- tainty has passed, and doubts are no longer nursed, and insinuations are no longer made, a feeling of proud satis- faction has swept over the people, which is already reflected in the swelling of bank deposits and the steady flow of business to the centres where the con- veniences and usefulness of banking are understood and demonstrated in the most attractive way. Our own city has enjoyed more than its share of this tide of increasing confidence and business, not only because it is known that Colonel Wilmot was the inventor of the method of absolute protection, but also because there never had been a time, during all the doubt and trial of the law as an effective agent for good, when our people had the least misgiving as to the solvency of our banks or the integrity of the young men employed in them. CHAPTER XV POLITICS AND POLITICIANS 'T'HERE was also another tide coming * our way, in proof of the adage that good fortune, like ill fortune, never comes single. This other tide was a political one, and on the crest of its foremost wave Colonel Wilmot was borne along not nolens volens; because he was not wholly differ- ent from other modest men at whose doors great honors have knocked: like them, he was willing to receive, even to contend for, the position. In fact, though unintentionally, he started this wave himself at the bankers' meeting. Afterwards, of its own momentum, it flowed through legislative halls, and on, in ever-increasing undulations, to the 117 n8 The Teller's Tale remotest confines of the State gathering force in the minds and hearts of the people as it went. And from the start it seemed inevitable that this wave should anchor its treasure-trove into the highest office within the gift of the people of the commonwealth . Politicians, young and old, seeing this rising tide from afar, pricked up their ears and waited to see whether it was the "real thing"; while the "gang"- that aggregation of gall, graft, and greed that combination of cupidity, corrup- tion, and cowardice, which had so long ruled the State, and whose ipse dixit had long been law, they recognized it at once and took common counsel as to how they might avoid its flood. The "gang" did not want Colonel Wil- mot for governor, for they knew his success meant their annihilation. Fur- thermore, they had already selected their candidate for this office and every other one, the filling of which was necessary in the settlement of old political debts, or for the maintenance of that political Politics and Politicians 119 prestige so necessary to their continued enjoyment of place and power and the spoils that go with them. They therefore pooh-poohed his can- didacy at first, and undertook, by ridi- cule, to make it appear as a politically promoted impossibility; but later, when every other weapon had failed, the leaders sounded the tocsin of war and gathered their forces to fight him to the end. The subsidized press said the combina- tion would be an easy winner; and many of the best people in the country thought it would at least be a momentous struggle. But not so. No such com- bination, however well organized, and however long and strong may have been its hold upon the affairs of state, can succeed when opposed by a popular uprising, especially when such uprising is represented by a candidate whose courage and convictions are co-ordinated with the well-springs of love and liberty, truth and justice, which are the usual concomitants of popular demonstrations. 120 The Teller's Tale In other words, when the people and their candidate are in accord on prin- ciples in antithesis to that cultivated desire for plunder which holds the ' ' gang ' ' together, they are bound to prevail. Not only this: but time and tenure weaken such combinations, instead of making them stronger. There is no such thing as friendship growing out of mu- tuality in wrong-doing of any kind. Thieves fall out and honest men get their dues. If political plunderers make the spoils of office sufficiently large to satisfy their confederates, hirelings, and heelers, they land in jail for theft or other crimes; while, if they do not, the disappointed fall out of line and failure is sure to follow. Nor is this all. Neither the dependent life nor the dishonest life is conducive to the growth of moral courage. The shrewd manipulator or wire-puller whose influence or position depends upon the result to follow is generally sly enough to wait and watch, in passivity, until the signs in the political heavens prove them- Politics and Politicians 121 selves; and at the right moment he jumps into the "band-wagon" and as- sumes to drive, as if he had been on hand from the beginning. And the underling is not by himself. This species of cowardice often pertains to those high up in party councils, who, if not so far committed that retreat is impossible, are ready to save themselves by "casting an anchor to windward." As my readers have doubtless inferred, Colonel Wilmot was ridiculed, opposed, courted, and supported in turns by the "gang"; and when the party pri- maries were held he was nominated for governor without opposition. CHAPTER XVI THE RACE IS WON "Two hands upon the breast, And labor 's done ; Two cold feet crossed in rest, The race is won." Had Providence, in His all-wise de- crees, permitted our hopes to be realized by the election of Colonel Wilmot to the office of governor, no greater happiness could have fallen to the lot of a com- munity. And just why it was not to be so our short-sighted vision will never understand until that great day when time shall be unrolled as a scroll and the purposes of God Himself revealed. A cold contracted while attending a reunion of his old comrades in a distant town settled in the old wound where a ball lay encysted near a vital spot, and resulting pneumonia carried him away 122 The Race is Won 123 from us ere we scarcely knew he was stricken; and thereby the hopes and aspirations of the whole State, as well as our own, were overruled and condemned to disappointment ; and thus was the hus- band and father cut down and the integ- rity of a happy home destroyed, just at a time when the joy of living was awaiting them in a larger life, the anticipated pleas- ures of which already filled their hearts. It is the loaded wagon that breaks down, the overloaded dynamo that burns out; and the physical man, as well as the mental man, is not unlike these, there being a point beyond which even will- power is powerless and supreme effort fails of its own ponderosity. It is difficult to make the lazy mind or body work ; but it is more difficult sometimes impossible to make the in- dustrious mind or body cease from work. For the lazy man, not having taught others to depend upon him, and having no definite ambition, misses the inspira- tion to effort, which the industrious man cultivates and carries wherever he goes, 124 The Teller's Tale and which sometimes causes him to undertake burdens which he can neither bear nor cast aside the mind being powerless to rest at will. Had Colonel Wilmot not burdened both mind and body with such a com- plexity of duties that the day's work passed into the night and prevented him from returning on the morrow refreshed by sleep, thus reducing his vitality far below the normal, he could have with- stood the attack of disease and lived to bless his people for many years to come. But it is not for us to quarrel with fate. It may be better to wear out than to rust out. And we have the consolation of knowing that Colonel Wilmot accom- plished more in the years of his life than many others endowed with better health have accomplished in threescore years and ten, and that his efforts for the community and the State will bear fruit long after his earthly comrades have been gathered to the stars and the marble monument erected to his memory has crumbled into dust. Part II CHAPTER XVII WILL SORROWS NEVER CEASE? OPRING, rising bright and buoyant ^ from her long sleep in the embrace of winter too cold at first, but later drinking in the distilled gladness of light, and knitting together again the tissues of throbbing life, grew and gambolled and glowed into the warmth and weariness of summer-time; and summer, in her turn and time, disappeared in the golden glory of autumn days. But even autumn cannot long remain: the gold must turn to brown, since beauty and ripeness only mark that transitory 125 126 The Teller's Tale condition between growth and decay, life and death. Winter is king of the year, because the other seasons are the vassal slaves who fill his coffers with their all. It was in this season that Prentice wrote : "Remorseless Time; fierce Spirit of the glass and scythe; What power can stay him in his silent course, Or melt his iron heart to pity ? " More than one fast-revolving year has come and gone since that cruel winter which took Colonel Wilmot from us; and, as if the loss of him was the begin- ning of sorrows, these years have brought to us a train of misfortunes whose mag- nitude might inspire an Iliad from the pen of one capable of expressing the full measure of our woes. On the 4th of February, a few weeks after the arrest of Arthur St. John, I received a note from his mother asking me to call and see her son who, she Will Sorrows Never Cease? 127 stated, had sufficiently recovered his com- posure of spirit to talk with me about his troubles. Having been the attorney for Arthur's father during his lifetime, and for his estate after death, and having known the family and appreciated their friendship and worth for many years, I did not hesitate to obey the summons, although, as my clientele was not of that class of persons who often need the services of one acquainted with the practice of the criminal law, I doubted my ability to handle properly so important a case as his appeared to be; for, surely, not only had he violated the laws of the State, but he had broken the rules of trust and integrity and brotherhood between man and man, and the cries and righteous in- dignation of the wronged were ringing curses and condemnation on his head! On arriving at the jail where he had been confined, I found him lying on a comfortable couch in one of the larger rooms which had been furnished for his use. His face was white from confine- 128 The Teller's Tale ment, and there were heavy lines of trouble in his features; but his expres- sion and voice were better than when I last saw him, and when he arose to grasp my hand I saw in the steadier light of his blue eyes a sign either of re- turning hope or resignation. There was, too, something of that old-time bon- homie if ever so faint which character- ized his every glance and movement in the happy days when he was teller at the bank. I did not know the cause of this better spirit, but I supposed it to be due to a desire on his part to meet the world with a full and frank acknowledgment of his sins. In a few moments after my arrival we were left alone, and he had thrown him- self into the midst of his story ; and dur- ing that day and the next he gave me a history of his life the hidden part, the true self, the alter ego the good man's Dr. Jekyll, the bad man's Mr. Hyde that controlling, responsible conscious- ness which must be to us either a blessing or a curse; for Will Sorrows Never Cease ? 1 29 " Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, The fatal shadows that walk by us still." There was so much in his story of wholesome value to others especially the struggling young man or woman going out to meet the issues of life for the first time that I obtained his consent to preserve it as coming from him to me in the form of a letter, and to be pub- lished thereafter, if in my judgment it should be proper to do so. I have taken the liberty of pruning the statement in places, and of engrafting some of my own thoughts at other places ; though I do not claim originality of ideas in the production of any part of it, for the reason that they are such as would naturally be suggested by the things he told me and the experience which I know to have been his. A few changes, by way of omission, were made by him in the completed narrative, at my request, but it is substantially as originally told to me; and the state- ments of fact are just as they occurred, 130 The Teller's Tale the only fiction being the change of names and places. In this connection, I will also state that this tale originally commenced with this visit to Arthur at the jail, while the paper of Colonel Wilmot and the law passed were introduced later on; and that it was at the earnest request almost command of some friends, of partial, but discriminating judgment, who were acquainted with many of the facts, that I went back and began at the beginning of those events which concern the people of the story. CHAPTER XVIII ARTHUR'S STORY Lessons and Reflections DEAR MR. RUSH: Feeling that the story of my short but eventful career should some day be made known, not only for my family name's sake, and for the sake of those friends who have, in a certain sense, be- lieved in me from the beginning of my troubles, but because of the lessons it offers to people everywhere, I make this statement to you, who, next to my dear mother, have been the best of all my friends; and it is through you I wish to speak to the world. When I was a little boy my father used to send me to the County Bank for small 131 132 The Teller's Tale change and to purchase small drafts for his remittances ; and I would often stand for minutes looking through the screen above the counter at the busy men han- dling papers and great bundles of bank- notes and sacks of coin. I thought how much nicer it was to be in such a place as that than among the dust and medi- cine bottles of my father's office over the drug store. In the one, I could hear the clink -clink of coin, and see the glim- mer of new money. In the other, I heard the despair of the sick in their groanings even unto death. The one was to me a typical house of plenty, where none but the abundant and happy ever went, while the other was the refuge of the poor and miserable. I did not then know I had not learned that there are compensations in the work which one may do among the poor and needy, which compensations are lacking in the work always measured in dollars and cents. I did not then under- stand (as I hope I now do) that it is only to the extent that we regard ourselves as Arthur's Story 133 trustees for God and humanity that we can or will obtain either happiness or lasting good from that which we possess that our time, our talents, and our taels are given us for the one purpose. Pardon me, will you, when I refer to the fact that my father never seemed to catch the spirit of acquisition or ac- cumulation, as applied to wealth; and yet he was as busy and untiring among his books, his medicines, and his sick as ever the banker was with his notes and cash. And, as I look back upon him, in his disposition and demeanor I should say that he was happier than the banker, and that his work was more beneficial because of the disposition and character it formed within him. As he ministered to the sick of every condition for miles around, his love for humanity increased and became to him a wealth more precious than the banker's money. Not that the money-maker may not be happy. I only mean that the chances the influences of the life he leads are against him. In order to acquire money, 134 The Teller's Tale and to handle business interests from a money-making standpoint, it is necessary that he cultivate a certain disposition and temperament, which disposition and temperament are not conducive to that liberality and unselfishness which must walk hand in hand with our larger and better happiness. "Hardly shall they that have riches enter the kingdom of heaven"; not from any fault of heaven, nor yet because of the riches themselves, for heaven itself is rich, but wholly because of the condition of mind, or character, which has been produced along with the riches, and which can hardly be removed. I planned to be, if possible, a banker, that I might have a position on the other side of that railing, through and over which I had looked with such longings; and I wish to give emphasis now to the statement that this ambition was as pure as any that ever animated a human breast. I should have scorned the sug- gestion that I would ever use, even tem- porarily, any money which might be Arthur's Story 135 charged to my keeping. The temptation to deviate from the straight line of in- tegrity ever so slightly had not then touched even the outer door of my con- sciousness. I hoped to deserve a good position some day even the best and to obtain it. That temptation an unwelcome guest did ever come to me, whose ancestors for generations have known and prac- tised nothing but the strictest rectitude, should teach a lesson to those who pride themselves that their sons are above temptation and do not therefore need watchful care and instruction. Such experience should also make heads of business everywhere understand that checking an officer's or other em- ployee's work at regular intervals, is not an unnecessary espionage, but a duty owing as much to the worker as to the work, upon the proper performing of which duty depends the certain integrity of the great army of bank and other fiduciary employees. But let my story teach its own lesson. 136 The Teller's Tale Returning by my father's office from school in the early afternoon, I managed to call at the bank and ask Mr. Price if I might carry the letters to the post-office ; and as he was glad to have me do this, I repeated it frequently. I also ran on other simple errands for him from time to time. During the vacation I made my- self useful in the pleasant pastime of folding circulars, notices, and letters, in learning to address the envelopes in which we placed them, and in distributing insurance blotters and other give-away stationery, and so forth, all of which I learned to do rapidly and correctly. I was now on the inside of the bank, a welcome visitor always; and, although I was much interested in my studies at school for a number of sessions following, I kept in touch with Mr. Price and his work, and counted myself never so happy as when helping there and learning how the fascinating art of making money was carried on. There was but one happiness greater than the joy of being in and about the Arthur's Story 137 County Bank, and that was the posses- sion of my mother's love. One summer I was ill for many months with a con- suming fever, my life being at times de- spaired of; and not until then did my mind know, or my little heart feel, the depths of a mother's love the tender- ness, the patience, the devotion, which never falters and never faints. Her very life is ours without the asking, and wastes itself away for our rescue and recovery. She will watch on, and pray on, and hope on, even to the very end, without en- couragement. Ah, yes, heaven lies about us in our infancy, because mother, the ministering angel, is there. I learned then, for the first time, what love and prayer, and devotion meant, and I prayed God that my mother's spirit of self-sacrifice might rest upon me. Did God allow that sickness to come in order that I might be drawn closer to Him just at the time when my forming character needed a stay against coming temptations, and chastising preparation for the trials which the future would bring ? 138 The Teller's Tale When I was fifteen years old I had finished the curriculum of the high school, preparatory to entering the State Uni- versity where my father desired that I should take the full course, our school being affiliated with that institution. All the arrangements had been made for my going, when the dreadful yellow fever came and scourged our community with sickness and death. Our people, in a burst of compassion, and supposing that the altitude of the town was too great for .the spread of this disease, had invited the refugees from other places to come and abide with us. How dearly we paid for the folly of ignorance ! You know what happened to our family. Father was stricken down at his post of duty ministering to the sick. The plague claimed his life and that of my little sister Annie, while mother and myself survived. How easily could we four have escaped, since the one immune physician of the place attended on the early cases; but father would not leave the poor, who could not get away, to that Arthur's Story 139 merciless time, and mother would not go without him. These occurrences prevented me from going to the university; for, since my chosen calling did not absolutely require that I should go, I would not permit mother to make such sacrifices of her personal comforts as my going would have entailed. When our accumulated debts were balanced against the small sum in the bank and the accounts booked for my father's professional services, there was too much certainty in the debts, and too little prospect of realizing on the accounts, to justify any expectation in the future, other than close application to business for myself, and economy and self-denial for both mother and me. Of all the women in the world who need the protection of life insurance against the pecuniary loss and helpless- ness which comes to them in the death of the husband, the physician's wife needs it most; for there would seem to be, on the part of his patients, but one incentive to pay : that he, living, would not attend 140 The Teller's Tale them hereafter unless the existing ac- counts were paid. Being dead, he can- not cure any more; neither can his executor collect. CHAPTER XIX ARTHUR'S STORY Continued In the Bank THERE was another circumstance that shaped my future. Billie West, the collector at the County Bank, was among those who died of yellow fever. Two days after the doors were opened for business having been closed on account of the fever I was offered the position, which I accepted, taking charge of the desk over in the corner of the front room on the 1 3th day of October. To say that I liked my work, would be putting it mildly. I was absolutely in love with it from the beginning. To say that I was diligent in learning my duties and faithful in performing them, would 141 142 The Teller's Tale be, as you know, only telling the truth; for they voted me (as one of them put it) a paragon of perfection and persuasiveness, when it came to inducing people to pay collections against them, and which was better gave me increased pay at the close of the first quarter. In the position of collector I endeavored to master and practise the rules of law and the rules of courtesy or agreeable- ness. I studied especially how to ap- proach people so as to make myself welcome instead of being dreaded. When I presented a bill the occasion would most likely call for comment to the effect that the debtor showed splendid taste in se- lecting such desirable people to furnish him with goods, or that it was so much more satisfactory to have one's receipted bill in hand at the very time of making payment. If it were a check against a deposit of funds, I would comment, if it seemed necessary to comment at all, either on the good fortune which the drawee enjoyed in having such customers as the drawer, or on the large and growing In the Bank 143 business which the drawee had built up and the great success which awaited him in the future. I found that I could be truthful in every case and yet say some- thing especially agreeable. In this position, and in every one, I gave cheer to the downcast or disheart- ened, and helped those who feared the darkening clouds of hard times to see the silver lining of prosperity. Like the banjo man in the song, "I made myself welcome wherever I 'd go" by trying to give to the people I visited a measure of pleasure in excess of the natural pangs which my coming would engender, leav- ing a net result satisfactory to them and to me. My success as a collector was not due to any great penetration or unusual adap- tability, although I was apt enough in learning where I set my head and heart together ; but it was due to my constant study, and consequent knowledge, of human nature, and my respect for the same. For instance, how many are there who seem to know, or will admit, that 144 The Teller's Tale there is resentment in the debtor's heart against the creditor and his agent. Yet it is so. "The borrower is servant to the lender." Yes; and what servant does not hate such a master. How few are there who know that there is a pang a sigh not always sup- pressed in the banker's heart for every dollar of deposits withdrawn, as shown by the decreasing daily balances, just as there is in the merchant's bosom when the cash sales fall off from last year's figures, and just as there is in the farmer's mind when the harvest yield fails to fill the barn? But it is so in each case. And a wise man will recognize the feelings and conditions of his fellowmen, which he is sure to encounter in pursuing his voca- tion; and a wiser one still, will not only respect these feelings and conditions, but make his presence a source of satisfac- tion no matter what his business is. A deputy sheriff of no education, in most respects incompetent, was elected to succeed his chief at the close of the term. Some one asked, Why? The re- In the Bank 145 ply was that he had made a friend of every man he had ever arrested. Un- pleasant duties may be pleasantly per- formed. Conduct can wield the wand that converts pain into pleasure that creates joy out of sorrow. That first period of work at the bank were days full of youthful hope and enjoyment: of enjoyment because there was agreeable and interesting work to do, with compensation to make me feel for the first time that I was a factor in the business of the community; and of hope in the future which was to bring its better work, and yet better compensa- tion. And this enjoyment would have been less exhilarating had there been no compensation beyond the weekly credit which went to mother's account; not that I cared so much for the praise they bestowed upon me in saying that I did my work better than the others, for such praise usually carries with it an implied promise to increase the compensation, and therefore there is selfishness in the pleasure it gives. The feeling I had was 146 The Teller's Tale different : I was glad in the very doing of my work, when it was done well, whether it ever came under the eye of another or not. My hopes were not deferred; neither were they delayed, for fruition came all along the way, keeping pace with my accomplishments. At the close of the second year I was promoted to the posi- tion of bookkeeper (the larger part of which work I had been doing for poor Mr. Ross for more than a year), and moved to the long, standing desk by the window. I have learned not to have much pa- tience with the complaining young man who says the world does not appreciate him. The only light you can hide is the one under a bushel ; and the only worker who will fail to find work equal to his capacity is he who hides himself from business and business men. The reason of this is, that, notwithstanding the rapidly increasing population, men are the scarcest commodity on earth. Albert Ward, who, as you know, was In the Bank my intimate friend, had succeeded to the position of teller but a short while before, having come up by promotion like my- self. In those first years I looked up to him as my model of a business young man. We worked and ate together ; and much of the time slept together, either at his home or mine. CHAPTER XX ARTHUR'S STORY Continued Temptations A LBERT was ambitious and confident ; * and his ambition became vaulting in its character. His confidence and imagination carried him to the point of believing that he could accomplish what- ever he undertook, however chimerical might be the undertaking. His virtues at first were large, and these made him lovable. His vices were only in the mind, and did no harm. But, ' ' As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he " ; and the mind and heart are such close neighbors that the guest of the one is likely to be- come the friend of the other; therefore, whoever has evil in his mind should cast 148 Temptations 149 it out, lest it take possession of his heart also. Evil thoughts become evil deeds. Albert's principal ambition was to be- come rich, and, of course, as rapidly as possible. How often is it that the over- cultivation of a virtue like ambition, we will say creates a vice. In fact, are not most vices only the offsprings of over-cultivated virtues? Listen to the fable of the thorn bush: It was once an apple tree and bore the best and largest apples, and in great numbers. Its owner was not satisfied with this abundance, but tried by cultivation to force it to bear more apples, and larger apples; when lo, the apples came not with re- turning spring, but, in their place, thorns ! The work of Albert and myself con- tinued to be pleasant ; but as the months rolled on our growing desires developed much faster than our hopes, because expectation did not warrant the belief that our positions with the bank would bring us more than a reasonable com- petency for at least several years to come. Desire is a dangerous quality of i5o The Teller's Tale mind when unsupported by expectation, for it is only out of the two that hope is born. And if desire becomes strong enough to arouse determination to the point of forcing hope, we may expect a positive result of good or evil according to the nature of the desire. Our aspirations were modest and mod- erate at first ; but they became poisoned with greed, if not positively unlawful, under the influence of the invitations which every mail brought us to indulge in the "sure thing" speculations, at bucket shops, in promoters' offices, and on the exchanges, including every kind of stock and other gambling. How hard it is to be content to earn two dollars a day when pressed with assurances that a hundred, or even a thousand, may be more easily "earned." Did I say offers to speculate? I should have said to steal; for what pro- moter-gambler would be interested in the bank clerk if his own little savings marked the limit of his investment ? Why do not the clergy and the good Temptations 151 men and women, who lifted their voices to save the country from the curse of the Louisiana State Lottery, step into the breach and rescue the bank clerks, and those in similar positions, from their peril by having the privilege of the mails denied to these baneful things, and by having contracts for watered stock and fictitious values declared illegal and criminal ? Or have these forces for good ex- hausted themselves in failure? And shall we be compelled to admit that the public conscience is less acute now than then, and that vice is stronger than ever before ? We banished this lottery, which never deceived us into believing that it offered us more than a gambler's chance, and which only made its monthly demands on the gambling instinct; and, in its stead, we have a thousand others, whose doors are always open, whose beguilings never cease, whose lyings would cause Sapphira to blush for very shame, and whose allurements would make the Sirens 152 The Teller's Tale weep for envy. They are not lotteries, but worse, giving not even a chance. When they give anything it is for the purpose of leading us to destruction. Is it not an open national shame that, instead of protecting the people and their mail against these frauds, public officials often participate in them, or levy blackmail for allowing them to go on ? At first, I threw these gambling prop- ositions into the waste-basket without reading them, and generally without breaking the seals; and Albert told me he did the same. But I noticed, about the time I took charge of the bank's books, that he preserved his for careful reading. Then he began to tell me about them and their offers. Presently, I began to save mine also; and in the evenings we would read them over and discuss them together. We saw so much money every day, and observed how much some people had, and how easily they seem to acquire it. In contrast, was the little we had and the slow process of acquiring more. CHAPTER XXI ARTHUR'S STORY Continued Practising to Deceive DY and by I discovered that Albert J ' had already invested a few dollars, and with results quite encouraging. He was anxious that I should join him, for, as the circulars all explained, the pros- pects were much greater for large sums, per each dollar invested, than for small sums. To this specious argument I yielded, and took the first downward step by investing with him. Not that the sum invested amounted to much. It was very small, only a few dollars ; and, being my own money, its loss could harm no one but myself. But it evidenced a disposition of discontent with the natural 153 i54 The Teller's Tale order of things, and a desire, or at least a willingness, to depart from the straight and narrow way of business. It showed that I was growing tired of the toil which never ceases, and which brings such slow reward. I was not free from misgivings at the step I had taken, and, for that reason, did not bring any enthusiasm into the partnership which Albert and I thus formed for growing rich in a fortnight. The truth is that I was nursing my doubts and looking for light, like a con- victed sinner at a protracted meeting. Albert, on the contrary, was very active in forwarding our joint interests by taking a little of any number of "good things" which were offered us from various sources. The business went on for a few weeks, alternately making and losing, until I was informed by Albert one day that my savings, which had been put into his hands, were exhausted, and that, in order to make good my part of a balance due on over-exhausted margins (how Practising to Deceive 155 clever of the broker to pay the margins for us!), it would be necessary to over- draw my account with the bank, thereby appropriating a portion of the bank's money to my use. Albert explained how this had become necessary, and he read a beautifully written letter from the broker giving the most plausible reasons why we had not profited by that time, assuring us that fortune was then in sight, and deploring (for our sake, he said), in advance, any disposition or influence which might cause us to "weaken" on the very eve of success! I thought over the matter until I re- turned from luncheon that day, where, instead of the steak and eggs of Aunt Betty's chop-house, I saw, alternately, the large check which should be my half of the prospective profits from our in- vestment, and the red-ink figures which were to represent my defalcation that night. I was converted at that lunch table. In ten minutes after I left there I had borrowed from a friend an amount necessary to discharge my matured obli- 156 The Teller's Tale gations in the partnership with Albert, and had placed the money in his hands. By great persuasion, I also induced him to agree to retire from the business. Never since that hour have I been strongly tempted, on my own account, to engage in any character of speculation. I have ever since been satisfied that total abstinence from speculative trans- actions is a part of the banker's moral character. I do not mean by this to erect a different standard for others, for the same rule should apply to every man. I only wish to emphasize it as a neces- sary, cardinal virtue of him who sustains a fiduciary relationship to his employer or the public. For the following two years or more, Albert and I continued our work in the accustomed way, and, as you know, gave satisfaction to the bank and its patrons. We also took part in the social diversions of the place. But Albert was not the same. He had been confident and happy at the office, and the very life of society. He now became anxious and nervous in Practising to Deceive 157 business, indifferent to society and its obligations, and, generally, ill at ease. I can now see reasons for the changes which had come over him which I did not then understand. In the meantime, I was happy in the love of my mother, and well contented with my work. While I had troubles of my own (who does not have?), I had no cause to complain of Albert, for toward me he was as kind and thoughtful as a brother. About a year after our little spurt at speculation, several banking failures occurred in two or three of our large cities, while there were a number of failures in small banking towns. As will be remembered, most of these failures occurred from the dishonesty of trusted employees. It occurred the same way in New York that it did elsewhere. The strangest part about the trans- actions was the helplessness of the banks and their inability to so conduct their business as to provide against the repe- tition of such occurrences. Any book- 158 The Teller's Tale keeper, or any teller in a bank, acting either independently or with another, could transfer a portion of the credit of an inactive account and make it appear to belong to himself or another, and in that way, place an almost unlimited amount of funds within his reach, with- out the fear of immediate detection. With hundreds or thousands of deposit- ors, many of them unknown to the president and cashier, it was found to be impossible for the bank's officers or stockholders to check up the work of sub- ordinate employees and know the condition of the bank. You are familiar with the agitation of the question of how to protect the banks against dishonest employees, and the law which was passed for that purpose. Though the first of the kind ever passed by any Legislature, it is a wise law. Had it not been passed, dishonest employees, having the easy methods of others pointed out to them, would have been tempted to prey upon the banks from one end of the land to the other; and Practising to Deceive 159 depositors and stockholders would have suffered greatly, in spite of themselves. Whereas, now, by observing the law, the depositor may protect his money, and the stockholder may save both his money and the morals of his employees. Long after the stir over the bank fail- ures, and the agitation, and passing of the law, I recall that Albert was very much interested, in fact, agitated, not only at the failures and defalcations, but also at the proposition to apply a reme- dial law, such as was passed. I recalled that he was busier than usual, and took some of my work off my hands, giving me opportunity for social pleasures which had been denied me in the busy season. We inaugurated the new system under the publication law, on April ist, and required every depositor to come to the bank within a month, and receive the printed rules and have them pasted in his pass-book for his guidance. There were a few who did not come in person but entrusted their business to others. Some communicated their wishes and 160 The Teller's Tale sent their pass-books by mail, addressing their letters to Mr. Price, or to Albert or myself. I remember distinctly the letter which came from Mrs. Wilmot addressed to Albert, enclosing her pass-book which was to be supplanted by a new one duly signed and attested. I did not see the new one as it went out in the mail. I remember also the occasion of the visit of Mrs. Wilmot and Miss Alice to the bank, when the checks for Colonel Wilmot 's life-insurance policies were de- posited, and how, after having this at- tended to by Albert, Miss Alice had me see that it was properly done. Well do I recall, also, the expression of trust which filled her eyes, as she seemed to accept my judgment with such confidence. CHAPTER XXII ARTHUR'S STORY Continued A Tangled Web ON July 1 4th, fifteen months after the law was put into operation, Albert was absent from his accustomed place at the teller's wicket, the word coming that he was confined to his room with a chill. I took his place, and, as it was the dull season, easily performed his duties and my own. I called to see him the follow- ing evening, and the next, and so on to the end of the week. He was despondent from the first, and more so on the seventh day, when Dr. Baird pronounced his case typhoid fever. His severe illness from the start, and sad death, are fresh in the minds of us all ; but sadder to me, by far, ii 161 162 The Teller's Tale than to any other person on earth, for the reasons I am about to give. When I entered his room two days be- fore his case became hopeless, he said to his mother, after greeting me, "Go, my dear, and rest a little, while Arthur sits by my side and tells me the news. "Arthur," said he, when we were quite alone, "I have a great secret lying on my heart, which must be known to you alone. I want you to promise, before I begin to tell, that you will hold it sacred within your own bosom as long as mother lives, and not divulge it then save for your own protection; and that you will, so far as possible, undo the great wrongs I have done to others." As he turned his hectic face to mine, and grasped my hands in his burning palms, speaking with a voice already weak and unsteady, I realized for the first time that my friend had fallen among the shadows which separate time from eternity, bearing burdens more frightful than death itself. Before either of us had spoken again, my mind re- I used the money of the bank, and lost, time after time. A Tangled Web 163 viewed all the circumstances of his life known to me, and I felt, as by intuition, the full force of all he had to say. Readily and solemnly, I gave the requested prom- ise, reserving the right to make a full dis- closure to you, in case I should need your services. Albert continued, "You remember, Arthur, our little dash on the 'Boards,' and how you conquered the temptation to speculate so easily ? Well ; from that hour of your triumph, our lives have been diverging at an ever - increasing angle. "I used the money of the bank, and lost, time after time; each investment being made in the vain hope of winning enough to pay it all back again. Oh, how inviting have been the green fields into which I have gone for fruit, to find nothing but leaves! At first it was copper, in which Daly and Clark made their fortunes, promising five hundred per cent. ! After that came other things ; and finally, Gold Coin, the last of my plunges, which was more of an invest- 164 The Teller's Tale ment proper than any of the others. You will find all those certificates in my private box in the vault. I yet have every faith and confidence in some of these stocks, and only wish I could live to see them declare the first dividends and win me back my self-respect and the money of others which I have lost. "I never intended to use the money of widows and orphans and the helpless. But when the publication law was put into force, I was compelled to take the money of non-residents and ignorant home people, to pay back the abstrac- tions already made from intelligent local depositors who would watch the publica- tions and complain if their accounts were incorrect. "This is the commission I place upon you: Take this property and hold it in trust for those I have betrayed; keep them in ignorance of the true condition of their accounts until a sale of some successful stock will reimburse them. In my safety box, you will find a statement showing the names of those whose funds A Tangled Web 165 I have taken and the amounts taken from each. In all, it amounts to nearly sixty thousand dollars. I know I am asking a good deal of you, and that in yielding to my request you put in jeop- ardy your good name and future safety. "But remember that a discovery of these transactions, at this time, would grieve my mother to certain death, and perhaps ruin the bank, while conceal- ment may mean fortune to you and others, and a preservation of our good name, with only the possibility of damage to you. I would not ask this of you, did I not believe it would be for your final good. I want you to have the balance of the stocks after selling enough to pay our depositors the full amount due them. We have already struck a small vein in Gold Coin and are sure to run into the great solid layers that made millions for our neighbors of the Independent. When this is done your fortune will be assured. "I know that in making this request I ask more than I have any right to ask. I know that in granting it you will 166 The Teller's Tale conceal from your employers facts which, ordinarily, they have the right to know. You also conceal from your depositors facts about the bank's true condition which they have the right to know, and you fail to disclose to certain depositors losses they have sustained, a knowledge of which would cause them to change their methods of living. "I have thought of all this, and more. I know it is contrary to our teaching that any one should do evil that good may follow. But certainly you will not hurt any one seriously, if at all, by granting my request. No additional losses are likely to occur. The bank's management is now perfect, and its assets will suffer no further impairment. If you should disclose the real condition of the things and make it known to the public, con- fidence in the Bowers law would be shaken, and a panic would result, to the serious injury of the bank and the busi- ness community, not counting the dam- age which would be done all over the State. A Tangled Web 167 " I make these requests as a dying man, for I feel that I shall never rise from this bed. I leave in your hands and keeping, mother's happiness and my good name, and I hope and trust you will guard both with all your ability as long as you can do so without great harm to yourself or others; and may God bless you in all that you do." CHAPTER XXIII ARTHUR'S STORY Concluded Conflicts of Conscience THIS was the pitiful and pathetic story which he related pathetic, because it disclosed a sorrowful tragedy of suffering and sin; pitiful, because he had no power to retrace the steps of a misspent life and blot out the wrongs he had done. His lost Lenore the inno- cence and honesty of childhood had gone out of his life forever. To say that I was shocked at the con- fession and its disclosures would be stat- ing the case mildly. I was overwhelmed, not only at the sudden and wholly un- expected knowledge which his words conveyed, but also at the critical, contra- 168 Conflicts of Conscience 169 dictory, and altogether unenviable posi- tion I occupied, as his friend, and, at the same time, the servant and trustee of the bank and others. Doubts, fears, resolution, and irre- solution, with other conflicting emotions, surged through my brain with the force and rapidity of electrical discharges ; and so powerful were the influences of one moment of time that I seemed to run the gamut of human experiences and reason- ing in less time than I can tell you, and to have found myself transferred from the field of earnest, but youthful endeavor, to the work and responsibility of age a burden which God alone in His wisdom and power could have helped me bear. What could I do? To have refused would have been cruel and inhuman; to agree was kind, but criminal. I agreed. At Albert's request, I wrote down his statement that night and submitted it next morning for his signature. He in- sisted that I should do this for my pro- tection hereafter. When I entered the door of the bank 1 70 The Teller's Tale after Albert's death, I had that old feel- ing of disquietude which I felt when I was about to overdraw my account to continue a speculative contract, and in a greater degree. But having promised him, in his dying hour, that his secret and good name should have my protec- tion, I intended to 'tread the winepress alone,' as I have done, rather than break faith with the dead. I at once inspected Albert's invest- ments, and was disgusted and disheart- ened to look upon the many snares which had been set for his entrapment, and with what worthless trash his box was filled. His Arkansas zinc and Gold Coin were absolutely the only stocks which he had from which I could have any reasonable expectation of realizing any collection whatever, at any time, and the prospects for these were not flattering. They have since proven to be absolutely worthless. Albert's confidence was but the drowning man catching at a straw; his hope, the manifestation of a ruling passion strong in death. Conflicts of Conscience 171 To assume the necessary false position which he had occupied ; to take his place as deceiver of employers and customers; to adopt the false entries made by him; and with no better hope that the end of it would be peace and honor than the mere chances that the two speculative stocks would bring a windfall, where scores of others had failed these were considerations to stagger a stronger heart than mine ; and but for the courage that comes from desperation I should never have withstood the ordeal. There are other things of which Albert spoke, which were too sacred to be written then, and are too precious now for the ears of even a sympathizing pub- lic of love unrequited, and of the am- bition which lay at the bottom of all his dealings. Let us draw the curtain of charity over his faults and commend his virtues. The light will surely break for me at last. So long as Albert's mother lives, there will be a barrier between myself and freedom, which cannot be broken down; 172 The Teller's Tale but I hope and trust that I may live until Providence provides for my deliverance. Whatever the future has in store for me, I have the consolation of knowing that my sins have not been selfish ones, and that I have been guided by the spirit of charity, although the letter of the law condemns me. The End of Arthur's Story CHAPTER XXIV IN THE TOILS r HUNG on every word of this narra- * tive, and could think of nothing else while it was being told, and for days afterwards. I was carried off my feet, and off my head as well, into an atmos- phere of astonishment and delight. In but one story-book even A Tale of Two Cities had I read of such self-sacrifice for friendship's sake. Never before had I seen it exemplified in the flesh. Here was a young man who, out of mere friendship and camaraderie, willingly took the place of a criminal and allowed him- self to be adjudged a felon by the com- munity and the State. He not only put aside every selfish motive that prompted him to reveal the guilty one, but likewise 173 174 The Teller's Tale caused the deepest of pain to his mother and others who loved him. He justified himself by saying that time would ap- prove his course, and that his relatives and friends would then forget that they had sorrowed for his sake. Certainly, if he had revealed the author of the wrong, Mrs. Ward would have gone to her grave broken-hearted. In the meantime, he assured his mother that all would be well with him in the end, and that no blot would be left on their name. She be- lieved in him, and this abiding faith was her sole consolation. Arthur St. John had been convicted of furnishing untrue statements of deposit- ors' accounts for publication, and was awaiting his trial on the charge of em- bezzlement. He had not testified in his behalf; and, indeed, it would have been useless, as he could have done little less than plead guilty to the charge. ' ' Silence gives consent," everybody said; and his closest friends could see but little reason for going through the form of an appeal to the higher court, thereby consuming In the Toils 175 the small property which his mother possessed. Nevertheless, the day following his narration to me, I went to the court- house and entered a motion for a new trial, which the court continued, in order (as was intimated) to allow the larger punishment for the more serious of- fence (embezzlement) to supersede the smaller punishment which, under the law, would follow the conviction already had. I also signed Arthur's bond in the sum of twenty thousand dollars, and be- came responsible for his appearance in court when required to be there. Upon being released from confinement, Arthur went immediately home to his mother, remaining there and denying himself to every one save a few friends, to none of whom did he then even inti- mate the guilt of Albert. And, as he made no claim of innocence, they won- dered that I should have caused his release. Alice Wilmot was frequently at the St. John home, before and after Arthur's 176 The Teller's Tale release, and was the one source of good cheer which sustained Mrs. St. John dur- ing all the trying times that fell upon her. She said long afterwards that she believed with a woman's intuition that Arthur was innocent. The fact that Arthur had apparently taken advantage of the absence of herself and her mother to misappropriate and embezzle their money, did not seem to have any effect on her bearing toward the family. The trial of the case of John M. Parker, Guardian of Alice Wilmot, against the bank, came on to be heard; the bank pleaded the law which freed it from lia- bility after having published for thirty days, without objection, the balance shown by the books to be due. The guardian replied: i. That the death of Mrs. Wilmot be- fore the publication was com- pleted, and the descent of her estate to her daughter, a minor, took the case from under the op- eration of the statute, thereby rendering the bank liable. In the Toils 177 2. (a) No printed notice was delivered to Mrs. Wilmot with her pass-book, as required by Section 4 of the law ; (b) Neither was any notice ever pub- lished in the community in which she resided at the time, as required by Section 7. (Although not mentioned before in this narrative, Mrs. Wilmot and Alice went to reside in Boston for the comple- tion of the musical education of the latter, soon after the death of Colonel Wilmot. Mrs. Wilmot died there some time afterward. Alice continued at the con- servatory, and only returned after the de- falcation of Arthur was discovered. She not being yet of age, a guardian was ap- pointed for her, to bring suit against the bank for the money embezzled from her mother's account.) The Circuit Court said that the plea was bad; that the rights of minors were not exempted by the statute from its terms, and that the court could not make exceptions of its own. The court also declined to hold that the bank was 1 78 The Teller's Tale required to run down with its publica- tions every depositor who should change his residence or choose to reside in a dis- tant place. Three weeks afterwards, the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Circuit Court, deciding that the law of bank publications, inasmuch as it failed to protect the rights of infants, was, as to them, contrary to that section of the State Constitution which declared that, "the property of all persons shall be en- titled to the equal protection of the law," and that ' ' no person shall be deprived of his property without due process of law." The courts said that the law, so far as it related to infants, was not of practical application, and the forfeiting of their property by means thereof did not con- stitute "due process of law." Furthermore, inasmuch as the law referred to the person making the de- posit, and not to his executor, adminis- trator, heirs, or assigns, it could not be extended to them, whether adults or infants; furthermore, that a rule which In the Toils 179 should undertake to include even an adult heir, would not be constitutional unless the terms on which the money had been deposited were made known to them and an opportunity given them to protect their rights, for the reason that such proceeding would not be due process of law. The Supreme Court also sustained the plea that the publications made would not affect Mrs. Wilmot (if living) or her daughter, because neither Section 4 nor Section 7 had been complied with by the bank, which twofold failure on its part was fatal to its plea for a discharge. This was correct: the pass-book fur- nished Mrs. Wilmot did not have the rules of the bank pasted in it, and no notice was given her as required by Sec- tion 4 of the bank publication law; on which facts the court commented, as showing a premeditated design on the part of some one to defraud her. As to the non-liability of the bank to adults who live in the community where the publications are made, the Supreme i8o The Teller's Tale Court held that the law was constitu- tional being due process of law and practical, as to them. The court said that those adults who signed the con- tract of deposit and agreed to be bound by the rules, would be bound, no matter where they resided, while those who re- sided in the community would be bound by publications, duly made, whether they had signed a contract or not. CHAPTER XXV WEEPING AT NIGHT the date of that decision there was no hope whatever for any abatement of the prosecution of the case of embezzlement against Arthur St. John. Most of the sixty thousand dollars had been embezzled under such circum- stances that the depositors would have to lose it, according to the decision of the court, and it represented mainly the savings for which poor old men and women had toiled for many weary years : and neither they nor the public could see any reason why this young "Psalm- singing hypocrite" (as they called Ar- thur) should not be dealt with according to the terms of the highly penal statutes which had been passed for the punish- 1*1 182 The Teller s Tale ment of just such a wilful and criminal breach of an important trust as this was shown to be; he was undoubtedly guilty, and must therefore suffer the consequences. I had procured a continuance of Ar- thur's case until the hearing of the case on the constitutionality of the law, hoping that a compromise might be made with the bank in case they had to stand the loss, and that they would show mercy to an employee and his mother, notwith- standing the idea (generally accepted) that "corporations have no souls"; or that the chief witnesses, being then no longer interested in the prosecution and some of them being residents of other States, would probably not attend the trial. But these were not all the barriers to freedom. As already stated, so long as Mrs. Ward lived, Arthur's compact with the dead prevented him from producing the indisputable evidences of his inno- cence. Surely, "His ways are past find- ing out " ; and, though, it is said, we may Weeping at Night 183 see by faith, what is it that we see ? Our will? Nay verily. We see in the place of our will, the will of God, in which alone we have pleasure, no matter what burden He may place upon us; and this reconciliation is the first fruits of faith. Mrs. Ward was surprisingly healthful, considering her bereavements and the fact that she, seemingly, had nothing to live for. She divided her time between caring for her flowers and chickens, and making daily visits to the grave of Albert whose praises she sang in continued numbers, whenever and wherever she found some one to give her audience. She showed Mrs. St. John every kindness, though there was an air of patronizing condescension running through her gen- erosity. CHAPTER XXVI TRUTH MOVES UNSEEN ALL efforts at a further continuance of Arthur's case proved useless, and it was scheduled to begin on the second Monday of the approaching term. Jus- tice seemed to cry aloud for the victim, like a hungry wolf waiting for its prey; and it seemed better for the defendant that no further delay motion should be interposed. When court opened the room was filled to its full capacity, there being present, besides the general curious public and parties litigant, members of the press, visiting attorneys, and candidates for State, district, and county offices. The morning hour of the court hav- ing been given over to the candidates in 184 Truth Moves Unseen 185 the presentation of their claims to their fellow citizens, Arthur's case was called immediately after the noon recess, a jury was empanelled, and the expert who had examined the books of the bank was placed on the stand as the chief witness for the prosecution. He testified as to the condition of the bank's affairs on the day Arthur was arrested, and named the accounts in which the discrepancies ex- isted. The pass-books of such accounts showed one set of balances ; the books of account of the bank showed a different set. The entries in the pass-books had been made mainly by Arthur, for they were in his know r n handwriting. He had brought down many of the balances in the de- positors' books, and in statements made to the depositors ; and he had knowledge of the balances in the portfolios of the bank. There were differences in the two sets of balances, amounting, so the ex- pert said, to more than sixty thousand dollars. Arthur knew these differences existed ; his silence showed that he origi- nated them. Nothing could be plainer. 1 86 The Teller's Tale On my cross-examination the expert admitted that he did not know whether the abstractions were made by Arthur, or by another with his knowledge. Just as I concluded my cross-examina- tion, my assistant, Mr. Bryan, was granted the privilege of propounding a few questions, which he did, as per the following dialogue between him and the witness : Q. These embezzlements occurred from transferring funds from certain ac- counts, either arbitrarily by somebody in charge of the business, or by the use of forged checks in the hands of some out- side person, did they not? A. Yes. Q. Did you observe any checks- fraudulent checks in any of these short accounts? A. I did not. Q. When did such discrepancies occur? I mean between the pass-books of certain depositors you have mentioned, and the books of the bank? A. I do not know. I did not extend Truth Moves Unseen 187 the examination, in this particular, far enough back to discover when they occurred. Q. Then do you know who made the false entries or fraudulent transfers? A. I do not except except "That will do," said Mr. Bryan; and before I realized what had occurred he was on his feet asking for a jury and verdict of "not guilty " on this testimony. The district attorney, in his dilemma, at once demanded that the jury be with- drawn and the case continued, with di- rections to the expert accountant to carry his investigations back to the beginning of the mischief. The court sustained his motion, over our objection, on the ground that nothing short of an actual trial on the merits of the case could be claimed as putting the de- fendant in jeopardy and entitling him to an acquittal. In this way the case went over again for the term. I did not know until some weeks after- wards that Alice Wilmot, believing that Arthur was innocent, and suspecting his 1 88 The Teller's Tale reasons for not proclaiming his innocence to the world, had discovered, through Wilmot Ross, the new bookkeeper at the bank, that the discrepancies in the ac- counts occurred before Albert's death; and, believing there was a possibility of saving Arthur in spite of his apparent guilt, she had taken Mr. Bryan into her confidence, which resulted in his asking the questions. Certain it is, however, that if those questions had not been asked, the jury would have convicted Arthur by the close of that day in spite of all that we could do. Of course, the reader knows that I was forbidden by Arthur to ask any question which might eventually reflect on Albert. The victims of the frauds and their friends, and the people generally, again cried out "trick," "technicality," and censured the court and all concerned at the enforced delay not one of them sus- pecting that there was the least merit on the side of the defendant. How often are we deceived by appear- Truth Moves Unseen 189 ances ; and how often are we wholly mis- taken, not only in our own beliefs, but also in our most confident assumptions of fact! Surely we ought to be patient, all of us, everywhere and under all cir- cumstances, unto the very end and con- clusion of every matter. It should be remembered that the evi- dence on its face was so overwhelmingly strong against Arthur that not even a doubting Thomas could be found any- where; for, in order to conceal the con- nection of Albert with his fraud, Arthur had surrendered all the original certi- ficates of stock and caused new issues in his own name, thereby destroying all evi- dences in his possession, or about the bank, that Albert had ever owned a share of stock or speculated a dollar therein. What need for an expert to go back beyond such evidence as this, especially when the mind is prepared to accept sur- face indications as proof? And are not most of us of that mind when it comes to confirming evil report ? Why should it be considered necessary to go back beyond, 190 The Teller's Tale the present appearances, since Arthur had not publicly denied his guilt, and there did not seem to be even a pretence that he was innocent of the charge? Under such circumstances it is not to be won- dered that the temper of the people was sorely tried at the continued delays in the hearing of the case. But Mr. Adams, the expert, delved among the books of the bank night after night, and week after week, with the persistence which is born of habit the habit of looking beyond externalities, and discovering first causes and hidden motives. He looked in vain for any hidden evidences any tangible proof- that another than Arthur St. John was responsible for, or instrumental in, the embezzlement of the sixty thousand dollars. The proof pointed to no other person, he said; and it was with sorrow that he prepared his report which con- tained this information, for he had felt all the while an indefinable leaning to Arthur a subconsciousness that de- clared him innocent. Truth Moves Unseen 191 The stock and security turned over to the bank by Arthur as security for the sums embezzled, were put up and sold to the highest bidder after the decision of the Court on the test case, and they were bought in for a considerable sum, much to the surprise of every one as to the price, I mean, by a prominent broker, who declined to give the name of his principal. CHAPTER XXVII THE WASTE-BASKET AS Mr. Adams sat at a desk in the bank, waiting to submit his type- written report to Mr. Price before filing it in court, he reached down into the waste- basket for paper to scribble on. What a strange thing happened! How wonder- ful that out of all the cast-off and worth- less paper, scraps, and circulars, he should have selected a letter from Bul- lock & Co. of Denver, addressed to Albert Ward, which had been thrown away because of its resemblance to the ordinary circulars sent out by brokers. This letter stated, among other things, that "The shares of Gold Coin with which you have shown much patience, are certain to improve in value soon, as 192 Mr. Adams reached down into the waste basket for paper to scribble on. The Waste-Basket 193 there are indications of a rich vein near the north tunnel, and we are anxious that you should increase your holdings to double your present shares, which you may do on the inclosed blank, etc." Adams had examined the stock certi- ficates. Gold Coin, like the others, was issued to Arthur St. John; but here was proof that it was sold to Albert Ward! In less than a week Adams had the original of every certificate that had figured in the case, and they proved to be in the name of Albert Ward. The correspondence itself, which occurred at the time of the purchases, was resur- rected all of which was with, and by, Albert Ward! And as conclusive proof that these stocks had been purchased by Albert with the money of the bank, the dates of their purchase and the amounts paid for them corresponded with the dates and amounts of the embezzlements from the bank. Truth indeed is stranger than fiction. Neither Wilmot Ross nor the bank's 194 The Teller's Tale shrewd detective-accountant had been able to discover these things in the bank ; and but for this hybrid correspondence- half circular, half letter, lying in a mass of nothingness, and the accidental thought which prompted its discovery, this book would have been written a differ- ent way, if at all, for it would have taken some other intervention of Providence to save Arthur St. John from a felon's cell. It is a long lane that never turns, thought Alice Wilmot when Wilmot Ross came in on his way from the bank to tell them what Mr. Adams had found in the waste-basket. Believing strongly that Alice was be- hind the herculean efforts being made to prove him guiltless, although no one had intimated as much to him, Arthur called to see her at once, and said, "How can you do this, Alice, when you know it will kill her?" "Whom do you refer to?" said Alice. "To Mrs. Ward, the proud mother of him who was your lover my friend." "Yes," she said, "but there are others The Waste-Basket 195 just as proud as she. There are heart- strings, sore with aching, whose joy will know no bounds when they are assured that this great incubus the accusation against you is lifted from your life and theirs forever. Are you not willing that I should comfort them?" "Why do you say 'they' and 'them,' Alice? Do you not know that mother is all I have? I have not seen Mary Blair since the opera party, the night before the awful discovery at the bank. She went away without a word to me sail- ing with her parents for France a short while thereafter, never granting me an opportunity to assert my innocence or explain my position, even if I had chosen to do so. She was, as you know, the woman I expected to drink with me from any cup bitter or sweet which might be mine. But her revealed weak- ness in failing to meet love's test at the critical time, has taken her out of my life as completely as if she had never been in it. "Since that time I have lived to carry 196 The Teller's Tale out the pledge to dear Albert, and to make his loved ones happy by shielding his name. His faults were not selfish ones. Had it not been for the love he bore others, the sins which did so easily beset him would never have taken hold of his life. Pardon me, but I know how dearly you love his memory, and how your heart is entwined about his good mother. I also know that your womanly intuition and sympathetic motives have led you unerringly to a knowledge of the truth. "Why do you make this discovery known at this time? Why do you de- prive me of the privilege of immolating myself on the altar of friendship, and of keeping my solemn vows to the dead?" Confusion of thought may come from that joyous fulness of heart which with- holds the blood from the brain and makes speech impossible. Confusion of speech may come from a modesty which forbids the tongue give utterance to thought. Alice Wilmot was confused. Had she been a man that confusion would have The Waste-Basket 197 been routed in a moment. Her hair put on a brighter gloss, her blue eyes seemed a deeper blue, and her lithe figure looked more queenly in the soft Southern twi- light, as, with diplomatic parries, she evaded Arthur's questions with such re- sources as she could command. At last she said, "Let the dead past bury its dead; whatever is finished is finished. Nothing we can do can change the trend or purpose of a life already spent. Our duty is to the living. I did not love Albert Ward. I loved what I hoped he would be what I tried to be- lieve he was, not what he really was, or would have been had his life been free from the positive sins which I now know lay at his door. I could never love a selfishness which accepts from another the sacrifice which I have reason to be- lieve he accepted from you which he requested you to make." Arthur and Alice both realized at one time, and for the first time, that each loved the other and had done so for years. Nothing but the unselfishness 198 The Teller's Tale of true love could have blinded them so long. Alice had presumed that Arthur was faithful to Mary Blair, and she to him, although he had not mentioned her in many a day. And Arthur had taken for granted that the heart of Alice of late so tender and gentle in all her ways and words was lying beneath Bethesda's sod, where, under the touch of fair hands, flowers bloomed in peren- nial glory. Did Alice know it was not Albert nor his memory she adored, but rather the association of his life with Arthur's life? No; she did not realize that her heart was expressing a metonymy of love. She did not know that there are figures of feeling or heart -knowledge stronger than any figures of speech. That Arthur and Alice had sacrificed themselves for a principle, and were true to a love which promised no fruition, are proofs that there are yet some flowers of Eden undefiled by the trail of the serpent. Each now realized the destiny of the The Waste-Basket 199 hour, and with the words "Alice," "Arthur," trembling for utterance, they surrendered to a love which had made them one of heart long before. And this was love's awakening. The mind was taught of the heart in the language of affection which needed not the conven- tionalities of speech to give it expression. "My dearest ^\lice," said Arthur after a while, "in spite of my efforts to con- ceal the real offender against the law, and in spite of my earnest efforts to be true to him who trusted his secret to me, the curtain is about to be drawn aside to reveal some of the unseen things of this life ; and I pray God that, with your love and strength to help me, I may be as true to you in my new life of self -de- velopment, as I have been to another these many days in sacrifice and immolation." "I trust you implicitly," she said, "for in your devotion to others, in your suffering for principle's sake, you have shown yourself worthy to receive unto your keeping my life and my love, and to mould them both for their highest good." CHAPTER XXVIII THE DEATH OF MRS. WARD "Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever; Do noble things, not dream them, all day long; And so make life, death, and that vast forever One grand, sweet song." BEFORE the dawn of the day on which Mr. Adams filed his report with the clerk of the court, Mrs. Ward lay stricken with paralysis; and in spite of the best medical attention she passed away on the second day of her illness. Mrs. St. John, Alice, and Arthur tried to comfort her in the last hours of her life; and, in half -consciousness, she seemed to realize the bond between the lovers, and gave them, kneeling at her bed, the blessing of her last breath murmuring the name of Albert, as if she gave his The Death of Mrs. Ward 201 blessing with her own, or thought it was he who was making a happy marriage. Mrs. Ward being the last of her family, her death had in it a touch of sadness which appealed to us with the thought that she died not for herself alone, but that with her perished the hopes, the aspirations, and the possibilities of a long line of ancestors who had fur- nished to the world, in their time, both brain and brawn to make it better. Without the cottage, nature was joy- ous in the light of spring. How out of harmony with the sorrow we felt within ! For the watchers by the side of death, even in the light of faith, can catch but feeble glimpses of the glories which await a redeemed soul in the world beyond. And as Mrs. Ward lay in her little parlor shrouded in the emblem of purity, and loving hands were weaving the jasmine and the rose into garlands for her grave, tearful eyes looked upon her for the last time, and voices, tender with emotion, recalled her virtues in a flood 202 The Teller's Tale of pathetic memories which clustered about her life. While, far down the street, where busy throngs were hurrying to and fro intent upon the duties of the day, the voice of the newsboy was heard crying the Morning News which was publishing to the world the story of Albert Ward and his crime. Arthur St. John heard this cry, and, turning, looked upon the placid features of her who was now beyond the pale of pain or the portals of poverty, and who had gone, without a final sorrow, to meet her God in peace ; and he would not have given his approving conscience, in that hour, for all the acclaim a world might bestow. No ; not even the story of his faithful- ness and innocence, which newsmongers were bartering for pennies and half -dimes on the streets of many cities, could com- pare with the satisfaction he felt in knowing that, through his suffering, this poor woman had been saved the pangs of despair and her life allowed to go out in peace. CHAPTER XXIX THE TOILS UNWOUND THE day following the funeral of Mrs. Ward was one long to be remem- bered. From morning till night men and women were calling to express to Arthur and his mother their great satisfaction with the report of Mr. Adams and its relation to him, at the same time praising him for the noble manner in which he had borne himself throughout the trouble and his sacrificing devotion to his friend. And although many desirable positions were offered him by men of business, with the fullest expression of confidence in his ability and integrity, he declined all their offers, for the reason that he was still under conviction for the smaller offence, and there were other indictments of the 203 204 The Teller's Tale same kind against him ; and, being tech- nically guilty, he wished to absolve him- self from all charges before he was willing to assume any other responsibility. Not only this, but he also had the one controlling determination of a business nature to replace to those who had lost their money in the bank, so much of it as might have been saved had he reported to his employers, in the beginning, each and every doubtful transaction which came under his observation; and he wished to do nothing which might in- terfere with this determination. He wished to pay this money as a matter of principle, and there were reasons why he wished to do so at once. It is true that the tide of public opinion had set so steadily toward him that there would have been no danger of another conviction, even if the district attorney had insisted on another trial; and it was also true that if the Court had passed sentence on him for the conviction already had the governor would at once have pardoned him; nevertheless, his The Toils Unwound 205 conscience told him that it was more honorable to pay the penalty for the wrong done than to avoid punishment, so long as a wrong of his had resulted in injury to others, and that he could redeem himself only by making them whole. How he was to undo such wrong and thus satisfy his conscience in time for the next term of court, was a question he despaired of answering, for he knew not how it could be done. The toils of the law were no longer about him and no longer feared, but the sense of right and wrong within him (the higher law) had yet to be satisfied. The law of conscience is older than the Decalogue. By it we are acquitted or condemned according to the quality of each act; and a jury's verdict can no more reverse its decrees than the statutes of man can repeal the commandments of God. CHAPTER XXX FROM OVER THE SEA THE train which brought the Morning News on the day of Mrs. Ward's death, also brought a letter to Mrs. St. John, with a foreign post-mark on it. It was from Mrs. Blair in Paris. She wrote to explain to Mrs. St. John why the family had gone away so suddenly after the troubles which had come upon her in the discovery of Arthur's dishonesty, and regretting that it had not been possible for her and Mary to see Mrs. St. John and offer her such consolation as they could under the circumstances, before departure. The reason for their haste, she wrote, was the receipt of a telegram saying that the steamer on which they had engaged passage would 206 From Over the Sea 207 leave port within three days, which time was just sufficient to allow them to reach New York. Alice Wilmot also received a letter from the same source a longer one. To her, Mrs. Blair expressed the greatest satisfaction in the happy circumstance that she and Mr. Blair had been able to delay the expected marriage of Arthur and Mary time after time, and that they and Mary were now doubly happy at the narrow escape which the family had in the timely discovery of Arthur's rascal- ity and unfaithfulness. Mrs. Blair consoled Alice in the double affliction which had been brought on her by the death of Albert; for in him, she said, Alice had not only lost her heart's desire a noble friend and intended hus- band, but her fortune as well. Mrs. Blair had just learned that Arthur had stolen Alice's money. If Albert had lived this would not have occurred, for his watchfulness and integrity would have been a barrier that lurking dishonesty could not overcome. 208 The Teller's Tale Mrs. Blair said that what was for one person's weal was for another's woe; for had Albert lived to prevent the early development and display of Arthur's dishonest character, Minister Blair and herself would probably have been power- less to prevent Mary's marriage to him, and they would have shared in his dis- grace when it did come. Mrs. Blair also gave Alice the compli- ments of Mary the Countess De Marti- neau, who was then with her husband on a bridal cruise along the shores of the Mediterranean. They had been married only a few days, Mary having at last yielded to the better counsels of her father and mother and answered favor- ably the protracted suit of the young nobleman. The downfall of Arthur had not only broken down one idol, but had raised another in her heart; for when she saw that father's and mother's pre- monitions with respect to Arthur were verified, she was prepared to accept their well-considered opinion of the Count. Mrs. Blair had but one regret that From Over the Sea 209 they were not able to make the dot of their daughter large commensurate with the title and position she had assumed; but this they hoped to increase in the near future, when the arid lands and other investments owned by Mr. Blair in America should reach their long-delayed high tide of value. However, their hap- piness could hardly be affected by their inability to do their full duty, for, happily, the Count, by the recent death of his uncle, a wealthy merchant of Marseilles, had fallen heir to one of the most valuable estates on the Continent. Another letter came to Alice from Mrs. Blair a few days later a confidential one, this time. The Blairs were in trouble. Minister Blair had encountered difficulties with his American properties not only in their development, but as to his right and title to the same. The cablegram from his agents did not ex- plain fully; and they were awaiting a letter for fuller information. Mrs. Blair thought it probable that the trouble 14 210 The Teller's Tale would necessitate their coming to America that summer, and their friends need not be surprised to see them. A telegram in the press from Wash- ington, soon after that, stated that Minister Blair was expected home on a leave of absence. In political circles it was whispered that a congressional in- vestigating committee, working in vaca- tion, had unearthed substantial proofs of transactions during Mr. Blair's congres- sional career (long since hinted at), which the President did not care to have made public until he had talked with the minister himself with a view to his permanent recall. " The mills of the gods grind slowly, But they grind exceeding small ; For with patience stands he waiting, And with exactness grinds he all." Some weeks more have passed. Min- ister Blair and wife have returned to this country, the former stopping in Wash- ington to see the President, the latter From Over the Sea 211 coming direct home. Again the news- paper attracts our eye the foreign col- umn this time, and from Paris too. Here is what we read : A YOUNG WIFE DESERTED PARIS, June 2. Madame De Mar- tineau, daughter of Minister Blair of America (lately recalled), wife of Count De Martineau known in the gay world as "Jules ", called at the Hospital Des Invalides where she was given suc- cor late yesterday. It is believed that she is dying of a broken heart. She and the Count were married in April and went on a tour of the Mediterranean. Ever since their return, a week or more ago, according to the story of the Countess, he has been almost constantly absent from their apartments. Fol- lowing him in disguise one night, she found that he was spending the time in his old haunts among the demi- monde of the Latin Quarter. Sick and broken-hearted, she has determined that he shall not return to her again, even if he desires to do so. It is said among his friends, that the Count was disappointed on returning home to find that the marriage portion expected from Minister Blair (reported heretofore to be very wealthy), was not forthcoming. It is also reported that the Countess and her parents were under the impres- sion that the penniless Count had in- herited a large fortune from a deceased relative in the south of France a miserable falsehood of his own, no doubt. CHAPTER XXXI JOY IN THE MORNING TTAVE my readers guessed the name * * of the unknown purchaser of Gold Coin? It was Alice Wilmot. She had a vision a dream an instinctive im- pression, or an enlightenment of con- sciousness call it what we may which informed her that this stock bore an important relation to Arthur and his troubles, and that it would one day work his complete redemption; and she fol- lowed this vision until, through Mr. Battle, the broker, she had secured the certificates and placed them under lock and key in her little safe at home. To no one else did she confide her secret not even to Arthur after their engagement; for, still nursing her hope, 212 Joy in the Morning 213 she wished to surprise him when the day should come for her vision to prove itself in fulfilment. Could faith, and hope, and love go farther ? What was it that led her unerringly, not only to a correct knowledge of the lives of Albert and Arthur, their sepa- rate and various motives, and their relations to each other, but also, of the relations between them and the things animate and inanimate with which they had to do, and the influences which these things would have upon their lives ? yes ; and even the destinies which awaited them in this world ? The pomp and expectancy of pro- phetic vision are no longer factors in the affairs of men. The seer has now no accredited influence ; and transcendental- ism is reckoned a myth. Nevertheless, there is an intelligence apart from the ordinary channels of information and thought, which operates on some minds and guides them to correct conclusions. Whence comes this power we know not, The Teller's Tale unless it be from above. And why given to some, and not to others, we know not, unless it be a concomitant of that in- herited virtue, and personal, redeemed goodness, which is fit to receive guidance ''into all truth" by the Spirit of the living God, who will also "show you things to come." We may be sure that we shall only receive such gifts of speech, or sight, or knowledge, when we are able to use them for our highest good. On the morning of June 3d, a telegram to the Associated Press from Colorado Springs announced the complete success of Gold Coin and an advance of its stock to seventy-five cents on the dollar, with the expectation that it would soon be- come more valuable. And while Arthur was reading the morning paper which con- tainedthis announcement, and wasbreath- ing a sigh of regret that this did not come in time to save Albert's good name and avert the trouble through which he himself had passed, Alice placed in his hands the certificates of stock which she had bought. Joy in the Morning 215 In less than ten days Arthur had pledged the stock for an amount equal to the entire sum due on Albert's defalca- tion, and had paid over the money and held the receipts of the bank and other interested parties. When court met satisfied justice had no demand against him ; and, in ordering his final discharge, Judge Hall feelingly echoed the sentiments of the public as to the heroic part he had performed in the unfortunate affair. When he walked from the room that day every eye that looked upon him was bedimmed with tears of joy at his deliverance. But, best of all, conscience, " The oracle of God," had now no accusing voice to mar the great happiness which a perfect love had brought into his life. Later on, he was unanimously chosen cashier of the County Bank, where he began, once more, a service acceptable to all. 216 The Teller's Tale In the meantime, Gold Coin was again marked up on the exchanges this time to two hundred, which made Arthur and Alice quite independent. They were married late in the summer, in the little church where both had been christened, the services being said by Dr. Palmer, the aged and beloved pastor who had performed every rite of marriage in the two families for forty years. Afterwards, they went on a tour across the seas, leaving Mrs. St. John to have the new home furnished against their return. That September, while driving in the Rue Borgne, in a suburb of Paris, Arthur and Alice encountered the old family servant of Mrs. Blair, who showed them the neglected grave of Mary Blair in a little cemetery near by; and they placed some flowers there in memory of what she had been to them. They placed some flowers there in memory of what she had been to them. EPILOGISTIC "THE NIMBLE LIE Is LIKE THE SECOND-HAND UPON A CLOCK; WE SEE IT FLY; WHILE THE HOUR-HAND OF TRUTH SEEMS TO STAND STILL, AND YET IT MOVES UNSEEN, AND WINS AT LAST, FOR THE CLOCK WILL NOT STRIKE TILL IT HAS REACHED THE GOAL." 217 University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. QL J&N 2 3 J