THE CALL OF THE STREET 337 



and after many deals with the B. & O. Telegraph 

 Company, on behalf of the Bankers and Mer- 

 chants Telegraph Company it became a com- 

 monplace with the latter that an agreement with 

 the Superintendent of the former company was 

 kept until Robert Garrett heard of it and that a 

 contract with Robert held until John W. got a 

 chance to kick it over. Thereafter I advanced 

 money slowly to the railroad and work was cut 

 down and finally stopped. There were no con- 

 flicting interests of ownership to hire lawyers to 

 get receivers and assess stockholders for their 

 benefit under the guise of reorganization. 

 When, through my becoming helpless, the road 

 became hopeless, in easy-going Southern fashion 

 the rails were picked up and the piles of ties 

 carted away for the building of the Washington 

 and Chesapeake R. R. 



In the last of the seventies my Wall Street 

 business was just confining enough to keep me 

 from any but short excursions into the wilds. A 

 few days off for ducks or quail, partridges or rail, 

 was all I could compass and keeping my armory 



