Adventure, June 1911 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

My Adventures with YourMoney frog Rush on our assurance that the prop- erty. was a good one. John S.. Cook, the leading banker of this town, accepted the treasurership on the same representations. Mr. Sullivan, president of this trust com- pany, is. vice-president of the Rush. Don’t dare go on with the promotion at this time. If you do, you'll get us into trouble, and we shall take drastic action.”’ _Dr. Lyman left the office without iutter- ing a word. eerie TWO days later I received a dis- at patch from Governor Sparks saying : that a full-page advertisement of the Union Securities Company had appeared in the Nevada State Journal at Reno, offering Bullfrog Rush stock for subscription. The Governor protestéd vigorously against the ‘sale of the stock. We had previously in- formed him as to the new conditions which Erevanec at the mine. I sent Peter Grant, one of Mr. Sullivan’s ‘partners in the Palace, to Dr. Lyman to ‘protest. The answer came back that the ‘Nevada State Journal advertisement was about to be reproduced in all the newspapers of big circulation throughout the East, and that the orders for the advertisements would not be canceled. Half an hour later Dr. Lyman entered the office with Mr. Grant. “Ms:-Grant looked nettled. Dr. _ Lyman glowered. . I bade Dr. Lyman take a chair. “Tf you move a finger to stop me,”’ he said, as he sat himself down before me, “TI’ll expose every act of yours since you were born and show up who the boss of this trust company really is!” Dr. Lyman was tall as a poplar and mus- cled like a Samson, He was fresh from the East, red-cheeked and groomed like a Chesterfield. I was cadaverous, desert- worn, office-fagged, and undersized by com- parison. Ina glove fight, Dr. Lyman could probably have finished me in half a round. But the disparity did not occur tome. The - sense of injustice made me forget everything except Dr. Lyman’s blackmailing threat. I jumped to my feet. Dr. Lyman backed up to the glass door. I aimed a blow at him. He backed away to dodge it. In a second he had collided with the big plate-giass pane, which fell with a crash. In another instant he recovered his feet, turned on his heel and yan. His face was covered with scratches, the result of his encounter with the broken 199 plate glass. Severs Ae who - followed: him, thinking he had committed: some vio- lent act, reported that he didn’t stop run- ning until he reached the end of the block. CLEANING HOUSE IN BULLFROG RUSH FTER Dr. Lyman’s hurried exit I was quick to decide upon a course of action. The position of the trust company was this: With the exception of Bullfrog Rush, we had a string of stock-market winners to our credit with the public. If we allowed Dr. Lyman to go ahead with his promotion of Bullfrog Rush, we .should, unless we abandoned our rule to protect our stocks in the market, be compelled some day to buy back all of the stock he sold. The truth about the mine was bound to come out, and we stood before the public as its sponsors. I decided that the trust company should refund the money paid in by stockholders of Bullfrog Rush and prevent Dr. Lyman from selling more stock. To the brokers, through whom we had sold much of the stock to the public, we telegraphed that we would refund the exact amount paid us by the brokers on delivery back to us of the certificates. We also wired to Governor Sparks and asked his permission to insert an advertisement in the newspapers over his signature, announcing that the property had proved to be a mining failure and advising the public not to buy any more shares. This pleased the Gov- ernor immensely, for he promptly wired back his O. K. with congratulations over the stand we took. WE ‘THAT night a broadside warning Fi i to the public, bearing the signature " of Governor John Sparks, and a separate advertisement of the Sullivan Trust Company, offering to refund the money paid for Bullfrog Rush shares, were telegraphed to all the leading newspapers of the East. Next day both of these an- nouncements appeared side by side with the half-page and full-pageadvertisements of Dr. Lyman’s Union Securities Company of Goldfield offering Bullfrog Rush for pub- lic subscription. The effect, of course, was that the public didn’t buy any more Bullfrog Rush-shares. The Bullfrog Rush incident cost the Sul- livan Trust Company a little less than Go DNOOKS ECO ANUC