A WALL STREET POOL 153 



part of which I took the big claim against the 

 cotton company and. the remainder in bonds of 

 the railroad my partner was promoting. He 

 asked me if the cotton company was good and 

 when I told him it was rotten he offered to stand 

 for half the loss. I refused to accept his offer 

 because I had made the advances out of friend- 

 ship alone and without the least business excuse. 

 I made my relative's firm my own and poured 

 in money to carry the load, hoping that some for- 

 tunate turn in the market would make it pos- 

 sible to sell the stock. The condition of the 

 steamship company was appalling. It owned a 

 fifth of the stock of the Pacific Mail Steamship 

 Company on which it was borrowing nearly four 

 million dollars of the savings bank and the im- 

 porting house to which I have referred. This 

 stock was trusteed and could not be sold, while 

 fear of the rivalry of the railroads then building 

 to the Pacific was breaking its price and the ruin 

 of our company was in sight. There were three 

 parties to the agreement to trustee stock of the 

 Pacific Mail, each of which held one-fifth of the 



