3M WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



take it for him if he did. This expression of con- 

 fidence stuck me with nine lots of stock from 

 that number of stockholders who refused to sub- 

 scribe. 



On the following December our cable was laid 

 under the North River, as a piece of it on the 

 table before me tells, and on January 16, 1882, 

 we began business between the Exchanges of 

 New York and Philadelphia with a rush. Role- 

 son, the crack operator in the country, whose rec- 

 ord was over fifty words a minute, sat at the Ex- 

 change in New York, taking messages from up- 

 lifted fingers, ordering purchases and sales in 

 Philadelphia, and reporting their execution, 

 often within the fraction of a minute. 



It was arranged to extend our lines to Wash- 

 ington and on May 12, 1882, it was again pro- 

 posed that cash be provided by issuing new stock 

 to shareholders at less than par. Once more I 

 opposed watering our stock and proposed that 

 we offer our shareholders 100 per cent of their 

 holdings in new stock at 120 per cent. This took 

 away the breath of the board and the meeting 



