154 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



capital stock. The shares of the other two par- 

 ties to the compact had been released and sold, 

 but the trustees refused to release ours. We at- 

 tacked them through the courts and the press, to 

 the great embarrassment of the foreign exchange 

 house which controlled them. We then fought 

 in the market for the control of the Pacific Mail 

 and at the annual election held stock and proxies 

 enough to elect our candidates, provided our own 

 stock were not voted against us by the trustees. 

 The air of the room where the election was to 

 be held was electric, but the battle that followed 

 was not of ballots. It was a game of lawyers 

 and judges. As I recall the order of the play, 

 our opponents led with the service upon us of 

 an injunction forbidding our voting upon our 

 own stock. We replied with a court order pro- 

 hibiting their voting on our shares. They came 

 back at us enjoining us against enjoining them, 

 and our counsel fired the last shot through 

 a stockholder whom the injunction had not 

 reached, serving upon the officials the mandate 

 of a court which forbade them to hold any elec- 



