A LESSON LEARNED.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 13947, 2 January 1906, Page 10

A LESSON LEARNED.

(By ELLIOTT FLOWER.) Henry J. Cai'lin leaned backward *nd laughed a loud, coarse guffaw. ■ Carlin was large and jolly and aggressive. That is, lie was largo at all times, jolly frequently, and aggressive occasionally. It all depended upon circumstances. When things were going well with him he was genial ; when . things wore not going well with him, ur when success in the enterprise of the moment demanded energy, he was ■as hard and cold as a steel rail in winter.' He had vigour that was not to be expected In one of bis rotund proportions, and he could be as cruel to a defeated business foe as he could b© generous to an unfortunate personal friend. He was the embodiment of “the street.” Just now he was in rare good humour. “ I guess w© did it to them this time,” he chuckled. “ Well, rather,” was the reply of Adam Fiske, who occasionally risked a little money in some of Carlin’s ventures. / With the exception of Harvey ' Driggs, the most youthful of the clerks, Carlin and Fiske were alone in Carlin’s private office. Driggs was sorting and filing' some papers, and Carlin spoke freely: in his presence, for the elder Driggs was his friend, and Harvey was. there to learn the business. •Besides, the youth seemed to he giv- ■ Ing his whole attention to his work. ■ “ We made them furnish the money that w© needed to do the trick, too,” Carlin added, still chuckling. “ How the devil did you. do it?” asked Fiske. “I know the results, •but I’m ignorant of the .methods.” “It was easy,” answered Carlin. “ There . will be a great laugh -. When the story is known.” He ’devoted himself to pleasurable meditation for a few minutes, and then proceeded to explain. “ I was in another deal with the Fraker crowd, and incidentally learned of Fraker’s interests in the D., Y. and N. road. In fact, Fraker told me something about it, and I easily deduced the rest. He had certain plans for the road, in connection with his other railroad properties, that were not likely to meet with the favour; of conservative directors or stockholders. Therefore, it was neces-' sary that he and his crowd should get complete control, which he did not have at that time. Now, a man does ' not require very much sense to know what to do when he discovers that ffl somebody,simply has got to have some certain thing for the consummation of his plans.” , “Quite right,” admitted . Fiske. ** Any fool knows enough to get the certain thing and hold up the man who has to have it.” , “Precisely,” said Carlin. “Of . course, I couldn’t do anything at the /time, for, I happened 'to bo trotting with the Fraker crowd in another matter, but I stored up this information for future use. Incidentally, I made myself' familiar with the whole D., Y. , and N. situation. I discovered that there- was a large account of the stock, held by investors, that no one could reach. They ■ had bought it because it paid better, dividends than a savings account, and they were not even interested in the stock market fluctuations. Then there were some large blocks held by conservatives who believed in the legitimate future of the road. This brought the amount available, aside ■ from what the Fraker crowd already held, down to a comparatively small number of shares. It looked to me as if a small man with 200,000d0l or 250,000d0l could cut , into the game and get einough of the shares that Fraker would need to have to make the situationinteresting. - Fraker had been buying a little at a time, but the other ideal had kept him pretty busy, and he , was still considerably short of control when he closed that up. That’s when I. came to yon.- I was where he could • not get back at me then, and it was safe to act. You know the rest. You wouldn’t put up quite as much cash as I wanted, but we got the money, bought the stock, and put it into the Fraker crowd for a clear 100,OOOdol.” Carlin shook with silent laughter. . Fiske laughed in sympathy. It was a good joke, beyond question, and it had brought a tidy profit to the jokers. , There would be much laughter among other speculators; also, for such a joke is always appreciated by all but the victim's. “ But that, isn’t the best ofit,” Carlin added. “ Quick action was required, and I found it was going to ' cost 50,000d0l more than I had available in cash. I borrowed that from Fraker, and did him up with his own money.” Carlin’s laughter ceased to be silent, and became boisterous, and a joke had to be pretty good to make Carlin laugh boisterously. “Couldn’t he have called the loan when,he found.out?” asked Fiske. “Of course,” replied Carlin, “but what good would it have don© him? I had the stock then—l had beat him to it—and I could raise the money on the stock, pay him, and still have him in’ , the same, old tight place. He had to have the stock. Lord ! but you ought to have heard him yell when I told him I’d sneaked in ahead and got the stock while he was counting his profits on the other deal. I’ll bet what he said will keep him out of. heaven. But he had to settle at my figure, and he knows row what it costs to go to sleep betweenideals.” .-. .There was more laughter, and then Carlin and Fiske left the office together. Nor were,, they the only ones who laughed. When the facts became known many were convulsed with merriment. Harvey Driggs heard tome of the comments. “They don’t make ’em any smarter ♦-ban Carlin,” was one' man’s verdict. ’’‘He can get money where there isn’t any - . I’ll bet' he’ll be the biggest man in the market before he gets through.'’ ■ “ I wish to thunder I had his brains and'his nerve,” was the envious comment of another. “The scheme was clever- 1 enough without borrowing the necessary money from his victim, hut that—Great Scott! he’s a wonder !” • Even the newspapers described the coup in facetious vein. It was smart, it was clever, it was brilliant, it was funny; it commanded admiration on all sides, and there was no one to say that it was’ ethically wrong in any. particular. High Finance laughed with .the victors and at the victims. The thing had been don© in a masterly way, and the measure of merit is success. If Carlin had failed and lost, there would have been equal unanimity in taying that it served him right, and it is not at all unlikely that his methods would have been severely condemned. ; ■ Garvey Driggs did not go so far as to consider tins phase of the question. He was there to learn, and he had learned how Carlin had been successful i’n tne transaction. His fatho- had told him that Carlin was a Master, not to say a Wonder; that it was a rare privilege to be under his tutelage; that he was a business model worth copying; that he was a Great -Man; that he was a complete lesson in specu-lative-finance. Carlin had an admirer, as well as a friend, in Driggs senior. “ Watch him,” the latter had said to his son. “See how he "does things, tjm methods of the business so

far as you can. You are beginning at the bottom, but there is no reason why a smart hoy should not learn more than pertains to his particular duties. In fact, that’s the only way to win. Study men, my son, study men! You can learn more from them than you can from books.” Driggs senior had laughed heartily over the story of the D., V. and N. deal. “By George, hut that was clever!” he exclaimed. “ That’s the way to do it I Carlin is certainly a seven-time winner. Made them pay him 100,OOOdol for waking them up! Just took it out of their pockets when they weren’t looking! That’s what I call making gold certificates out of brains. Borrowed part of the money from thorn, too. I wish I hadn’t settled' 1 down to a slow, prosaic business in my youth.” Driggs senior was a successful business man, but he never had made 100,OOOdol in this clever and expeditious way. Harvey was unsomphisticated, but of quick perception. He knew nothing of the business world when he went into it, having been abroad with his mother during much of Ins youth, hut he was ambitious. His father, while not wealthy, was a man of ample means, and his son’s education had been secured in travel and at home; only at rare intervals and for brief periods had he attended school. And the education, under his mother’s supervision, had not been a practical one for a business man. Yet Harvey was industrious and ambitions; he had none of the instincts or inclinations of the gilded youth, but he wished to bo great, and his training and surroundings had given him the impression that true greatness in this world lay in financial success. Commercial or financial victories were the things he heard lay in financial /success. Commercial or financial victories were the things he heard the most about, although his book education had little to do with them. Then, when his father secured a position for him in the offices of Carlin, Musgrave and Simmins, he dis-. covered that “ cleverness ” was the admiration. and aim of everybody, from the office-boy to the chief clerk, and that cunning and duplicity ranked high, f Thus, the D., V. and N. deal made a deep impression on Harvey., It was not the only deal of that nature with which he was fairly conversant, but the methods. stood out more clearly in this than in- any of the others, and this was the only one that he had heard explained by the high authority, Carlin. It haunted Harvey; ho wished that the frank admiration and enthusiastic commendation that he heard expressed on all sides were for him, but he could not see how the lesson was to_ do him any good at that particular time. He was confident that he now “knew how,” hut great resources were necessary for deals of that description, and he had only a few hundred dollars in the bank. He also lacked the opportunity, which was quit© as important. And what chance had he to borrow from his victim? Of course, that detail was not absolutely - necessary, but he could not forget that it seemed to he regarded as the crowning feat of high finance. Harvey wanted all the glory that vent with the accumulation of the money necessary to .success. , Then the excitement of the contemplated removal of the offices to another building drove these thoughts from his mind. A particularly desirable suite was to be vacated, and Carlin wanted it—provided he could sub-let the suit© h© then occupied. The news that a change was under consideration quickly reached the clerks,’hut the details were known only to Carlin, liis partners—and Harvey Driggs- Harvey was not supposed to know it, but he did. .He had charge of the filing of Carlin’s personal mail, and frequently worked unobtrusively in Carlin’s private office when the others were present and matters not entirely confidential were discussed. He was there when Carlin- told Simmins about the new offices. ; “We’ve got to have them, provided we can get these off our bands,” said Carlin ; and Driggs, who had heard 1 only the general office rumour so far, was strangely impressed by the words, Fraker “ had to have ’’ the D., V. and. N. stock that Carlin had secured. When anyone “had to'have” a certain thing was likely to ho a business opportunity for a smart man. “They are better located and more desirable in every way' for our purposes. They are so much more convenient that it’s worth something to" us not to have certain other parties get them.” Simmins nodded Ms acquiescence, Ton location counts for something occasionally, even ‘in high finance and speculation, and there were rivals who would jump at the chance to get offices so perfectly suited to their business. “Have you spoken for them?” asked Simmins. '' ■ ' “ Not yet,” replied Carlin. “ The agent of the building doesn’t know that they’re going to be vacant. Denning has a five-year lease that expires pretty soon, and be whispered to me confidentially that he did not intend to renew it. The agent thinks he will. I told him to let the agent think so for a uctle while longer. That has the effect of reserving them for us until we find out what wo can do with these rooms. Don’t want to pay rent in two places. Although it’s pretty nearly worth it to get that Denning suite.” Driggs absorbed all this without having any definite plan in mind, hut it made a deep impression. It was business to get a man “had to have,” and then make him pay for it. That was what Carlin had done; that was what others were constantly trying to do; that was the aim of any man who tried to “corner” anything. The big operators, with great resources, occasionally sought to buy what the public “had to have”—wheat for instance—and those, who could not attempt such vast operations contented themselves with the purchase of almost anytning that another might find it necessary or expedient to own. Ordinary speculation might depend for success on knowledge and judgment of, market conditions, but the “lead-pipe cinch” variety of speculation depended upon a knowledge of the imperative needs of a man or clique. Opportunities for the latter form of speculation might not he many, hut Driggs had noticed that men jumped for them when they did . appear. This seemed to him that kind of an opportunity. “ It’s too bad,” mused Harvey, when he had finally formulated Ms plan, “that I can’t borrow the money from Carlin to do this. That would be so much more artistic. Still, if I get it from Dad, who is Carlin’s personal friend, I’ll be doing pretty well for a beginner. Dad ought to appreciate the joke. He certainly laughed enough when Carlin did. the trick.” So Driggs junior went to Driggs senior and borrowed some money to add to what he had in hank. He did not wish to he caught short of cash when the moment for action came. “A little speculation,” he explained. “Carlin has shown me how to make a little money.” ■ He neglected to explain that Carlin had done this without knowing it. “Go in, ray boy,” laughed Driggs senior. “ Carlin makes them roar when he gets after them. That’s hardly to he expected of you yet, hut in time—— ’ “ Oh, I guess, if you listen, you may hear somebody holler,” interrupted Driggs junior confidently.

“Good!” exclaimed Driggs senior.- “ In your line the yelling is the measure of success.” The fact that Driggs junior was the son of Driggs senior, and that he was employed by Carlin, Musgrave and Simmins, gave him a standing that few youths of his age possessed. Consequently, when ho gave his instructions to Bennett, a real estate man, with whom his father had business relations, and accompanied these with a cash deposit, there was no disposition to question his purpose. The natural supposition was that he had some one behind him. Any man who goes into speculation has an anxious time of it, and the anxiety is not lessened for a youth. Harvey Driggs was nervous, and he lost a good deal of sleep. He was so absent-minded that his immediate superiors had to speak to him about it. But he was unusually attentive to those duties that took him to Carlin’s private office, and in a day or so he was rewarded; ho heard a caller say that he would take the offices then occupied by the Carlin firm. “Driggs!” Carlin called when the man had gone. t Driggs had disappeared. I “Strange,” muttered Carlin. “Well, tell him I want to see him as scon as he comes in.” Driggs was busy at a public telephone in the next block, the message he was sending being of a nature .that he did not care to have overheard by his employers or fellow-clerks. He returned a few minutes later. “Driggs,” said Carlin, “I wish you would go to Denning’s office and see him personally. Tell Mm it’s all right —he’ll understand—and that the sooner jwe close the matter up the better.” | i Carlin had an understanding with Denning that the latter should arrange with the agent of the building for a lease of the suite to Carlin when he (Denning) gave notice of:his intention to move. Thus, it was believed, there would be no chance for a third party to slip in and get them. Except where Ms ideas had been per- • verted by a study of Carlin’s methods, Driggs had a pretty good conception of the ethics of business, and he resisted . the temptation to withhold the message until he had heard from Bennett. Possibly that is . more than his employer would have done in similar circumstances,! hut Driggs was comparatively new to “the street.” . Besides, he felt pretty sure that Bennett would waste no time, and that Denning might. And Denning did. He was busy at the time and he did not see the agent until two or three hours later. . Then ho telephoned Carlin. “ You’d better get right over here,” he said, “ for there is a slip somewhere.” Carlin went right over, and Denning explained. “ Bennett, the real estate man, told the agent that I intended to move, and insisted upon an immediate lease, subject to my action in the matter,” he said “ Made a cash deposit to bind it, I understand. Don’t know where he got Ms information, but he seemed to bo sure, and the agent thought it too good a chance to lose, so he made a provisional agreement. If I surrender the offices, Bennett gets them.” “ Who’s ho representing?” asked the annoyed Carlin. “ I can’t tMnk of any Driggs who would want these offices—and I’ve got to have them. I’ve sub-let the others, and I’d look like a back number in anything else I can get her© now. I’ve got to have them, Denning. "TheyT© just what I want.” “ Perhaps somebody’s running a corner on you,” laughed Denning. Carlin went thoughtfully back to Ms office and called for Harvey Driggs. “Harvey,” he said, “the excitement of this business hasn’tlured your father into 'the street ’ has it?” “ No, sir.” “ Well, you don’t happen to know any Driggs who would want a big suite of offices in tliis district, do you?” - “ Only myself, .sir.” , “Only—what!” “ Myself, sir/’ “ It took Carlin, the resourceful and ready operator, a minute or two to ! grasp this extraordinary statement. “ What the devil would you want of them?” ho asked at last. “I might sell the lease to you, sir.” Tt What!” cried Carlin. “Are you trying to hold, me up?” “ Isn’t that business, sir ? Didn’t you hold up the Fraker crowd? I’m only sorry, sir, that I couldn’t borrow the money from you to do the joM That would have been a joke! But I did the next best thing, and got some of it from Dad.” “You’re in a,fair way to go to the penitentiary, young man,” said Carlin, sternly. “ Ethically, you’re guilty of a betrayal of trust. You mad© use of information that you got in. these offices.” “Of course,” was the calm reply. “ Isn’t that right? Isn’t it done all the time? Didn’t yon get your information from Fraker while you were in partnership with him on another deal?-. Haven’t you bought information from _ employees in other offices? Its business, and business only, that I’m trying to learn. I want to be as clever and as great as the best, and Dad laughed an hour over that D., V. and N. deal. Carlin was angry, and then amused, and puzzled. This youth didn’t understand, and it didn’t look like an easy job to make him. “ Where did you get your idea of business?” he asked, to gain a little time while considering the matter. “Oh,” replied Driggs carelessly, repeating Carlin’s own words on a previous occasion, “a man doesn’t require very much sense to know what to do . when he discovers that somebody has simply got to have a certain thing.” “ He doesn’t I” exclaimed the startled Carlin. “No; sir. Any fool knows enough to get the certain thing and hold up the man -who has got to have it. I guess I’ve got the certain thing this time. There will be a great laugh when the story becomes public.” Driggs was so confident that he was deliberately “rubbing it in,” but he rather expected Carlin to be great ; enough to rise superior to chagrin at | his own defeat, and to applaud the i cleverness of an inexperienced youth who could so quickly master a great business lesson. He had heard of men who had rewarded ability thus demonstrated. But somehow Carlin did not seem to look at it in the right light. He controlled Ms temper with evident effort. “ Harvey,” said Carlin at last, “ I ought to discharge you, but I’m going to overlook this for your father’s sake. You have a perverted idea of business morals, but I believe you are all right at heart and will learn better. Transfer that 'lease to me and go back to your work.” “That lease,” retorted Driggs defiantly, “ will cost you a bonus of 500dol. 1 know when I’ve got a good thing.” “If I don’t take it off your hands,” argued Carlin, “ you’re going to find yourself in a tight place. There are ' few who care for so large a suit©, and you can’t afford to hold it.” “ I don’t intend to hold it,” asserted Driggs. “You’ve got to have it, and it’s always a good investment to buy what another man has got to have. That’s business, as I understand it. You’ve sublet these offices and you’ve got to have those. My lease is for five years, and the bonus for that leas© will increase 50dol every hour until you finally com© to time.” Driggs took out his watch and noted the hour. Such calm defiance from an employee was too much for Carlin, even when the employee was the son of a 1 friend.

“Get out!” he ordered. “I’ll have no such obstinate tricksters in my office.”

“ The bonus is going up steadily, said Driggs confidently, as ho turned to leave. Then, when he got outside, he mused: “It’s queer what changing ideas people have of trickery. I learned business from him. But it will tickle Dad.” Carlin was thoughtful for a few minutes after Driggs had left. The situation was certainly awkward. He had no place to go when ho vacated the offices he then occupied, and there was nothing as desirable as the Denning suite to be had. There were rivals who would jump at the chance to got these offices, too, if they could make satisfactory arrangements in the matter of other leases. But the main thing was that Carlin had to move. “It’s worth the money, if w© have to pay it,” he reflected, “ but it’s mighty humiliating to bo over-reached and held up by a clerk.” Then his frown disappeared and a smile appeared, and a few minutes later ho was talking with Denning over the telephone. Driggs senior told Driggs jumor in emphatic language that it was no joke, and that no one except a moral degenerate could consider it one. Driggs junior was surprised, and took pains to Eoint out the way many people had eon “ squeezed ” when someone discovered that they had to have something. Incidentally, he called attention to the way Driggs senior had laughed over the discomfiture of the Fraker crowd when they needed D., V. and N. stock. “ That was business,” asserted Driggs senior. “It was for Carlin,” Driggs junior conceded, “ but Fraker said it was a nasty trick. TMs is business for me, and Carlin is looking at it about as Fraker did. I didn’t borrow the money from Carlin, either. Perhaps that’s the trouble. Perhaps that would have made it clever.” “ Well, you’re going to get hack to Carlin as soon as you can and apologise and surrender the lease.” “I’m going to do that,” returned Driggs junior, “ just as soon as Carlin sends me a certified check for 600dpi by way of invitation, and not until then.” The dispute grew acrimonious. Driggs senior threatened to exert his parental authority, Driggs junior lacking two or three years of being of age, and Driggs junior defied him in a most extraordinary way, for he had previously been most tractable. Now, however, he was angered by the contradictoriness of precept and example. Then Bennett called Driggs junior up on the telephone. " The deposit on that leas© has just been returned to me,” said Bennett. “ Denning has decided to lease the suite for another five years, and, under the provisional agreement that lets us out. I’ll deduct my charges and return the balance to you ” “ Now, what do you think of that?” asked Driggs junior as he sank into a chair. “ I think that you’re out of a job and out of pocket, and that I’d better take you out of high finance and make a place for you in my own office.” “ I suppose so,” admitted Driggs junior weakly. “ But what could have made Denning change his mind so suddenly?” “ Carlin could,” returned Driggs senior grimly. “I think you’ll find that it’s so arranged that Denning will sublease to Carlin. “It’s mighty funny,” muttered Driggs junior, “ the way things don’t work out. I’ve got myself on the black list for following a rule that makes others great.”