The Sunday Oregonian., July 25, 1909, SECTION SIX, Page 4, Image 58

HEROINS' CKOwMED AND DLCO,
' " J
BT JOHX TTUTtETH W ATKINS.
THE crowning of Miss Mabel Board
man by King Victor Emmanuel of
Italy and hor decoration also by
King Gustavus of Sweden place her in
the very select category of American
women who have been similarly honored
by foreign rulers for achievements of
their own and not of their husbands or
fathers.
The crown which Victor Emmanuel
has Just had especially wrought for her
by the royal goldsmith Is quite the most
pretentious gift ever presented by a for
eign monarch to an American citizen of
either sex. It is an artistic reproduction
of an ancient Roman civic crown in oak
leaves and acorns made of solid gold,
and the leather case which incloses It
bears the King's arms in gold.
Crowned Li We Ivouiuil Hero.
This Is a revival of the ancient Roman
custom of crowning, not only victors in
the public games, but citizens who had
done the stale some distinguished service,
at first with wreaths of grass, then gar
lands of flowers and laurel, oak and olive,
but finally of gold. Into Miss Board man's
crown are engraved these words:
"To Mabel Bnardman. of the American
Red Cross, from the Italian government,
as a token of gratitude, i:J8-l!u9."
Of course, this refers to Miss Board
man's tireless energies in behalf of the
thousands of victims of the recent earth
quakes of Southern Italy. Her Interest
In charitable work led her into the old
Red Cross Society, In whose reorganiza
tion she was largely Instrumental, and
since Mr. Taft became the president of
the new body, four years ago, she has
been his right bower and the most active
member of the central committee. Its gov
erning body. She is also editor of the
Red Cross Magazine and has expended
her own funds In traveling about the
country organizing state branches of the
society. This gift from the Italian King
follows closely after the recent ceremony
at her house, when President Taft, on
behalf of the party which accompanied
him to the Philippine presented her with
a, handsome gold watch suspended from
a chain of gold and pearls, and Inscribed:
To Mabel Boardman. the one we love."
Miss Boardman was a close friend of the
Roosevelts, for whom she chaperoned
their daughter Alice on that memorable
Philippine trip, which resulted In her en
gagement to Representative Longworth.
She is even nearer to the Tafts. who were
guests at her father's house when they
ame to Washington for the Inaugural
t-eremonies. She Is generally known as
Mrs. Taft's chum.
P roo rated by Kins Gustavus.
tier decoration by Gustavus of Sweden
uh tho "King s own medal" was also In
recognition of her Red Cross work. Mr.
le l.agercrantz, that sovereign's envoy in
Washington, called at her home and
formally presented It to her, the tirst
Amerh-an who has ever received it- It is
one of the highest decorations ever con
ferred by Swedish sovereigns and Is the
tlrst decoration which King Gustavus has
conferred since his accession. The medal
is about the size of a silver dollar, but is
of gold, and on the obverse side Is the
has-rellef portrait of the King, with his
name beneath, while the reverse displays
Miss Bnardman's name in raised lettering.
A blue ribbon suspends the decoration
when It is worn. Like the crown from the
The Mystery of Short Selling
How Jay Gould Got Control of the Western Union.
WHET Jay Gould determined to
get control of Western Union he
began, in his usual manner, by
pounding the stock in the open market.
As he hadn't any stock to start with, he
could depress the price only by short sell
ing, which Is to aay that he borrowed
shares to sell and sold them in a mannei
calculated to break the price, intending
ultimately to buy at a profit all the bor
rowed stock h had-sold and then enough
more to give him control of the company.
The nature of his selling that it was
short selling wa discovered by a little
band of men sufficiently daring and re
sourceful to give even Mr. Gould a fight
worthy of his peculiar genius. A pool
was formed to buy Western Union as fast
as Mr. Gould sold It. James R. Keene,
Addison Camm.ick. W"oerlshoffer. Smith
and others were in it. The operations of
the pool were so adroitly conducted that
Mr. Gould was unaware of its existence
until he had gone so far that he couldn't
retreat. He had sold more Western Union
than he could possibly obtain elsewhere if
those who had been lending him the stock
should call upon him to return it. He was
cornered. Ho knew It, the pool knew It,
and c.i.-h side knew that the other knew.
U puziies the layman greatly to see
how speculators who haven't any stock
can borrow It to sell and actually succeed
In selling more than there Is on the mar
ket, thereby getting themselves cornered.
It seems very simple to those who know
the process. The whole explanation lies
in the fa.-t that a single stock certificate,
siven sufficient time, will servo to make
Innumerable deliveries. A wishes to sell
shares of stock which he doesn't own.
He lnirrows it from B and sells to C. The
n.xl t.y V wishes to likewise sell 500
shares of the same stock. whU-h he
,l.i.su"t own. He borrows it from C and
sv'.ls It to E. The same 0 shares of
to. k w ill serve the purpose of both A
and P. the sellers, but between them they
iire short 10U shares, which ultimately
th y must buy and return.
In this case of Western Union, ths
pool's brokers were the prin.-lpal holders
of stock, and had been lending it over
and over to Mr. Gould's broker, until Mr.
tuld's ales wtuslly exceeded the float
In supply. Whaa the pool cut ready It
honors:from European
Italian King, it was received in a hand
some leather case bearing the arms of the
royal donor.
Among the few other American women
who have been decorated for their own
achievements are: Clara Barton, former
head of our Red Cross, who for her
Kranco-Frusslan war work was given the
"Iron Cross of Merit" by Emperor Will
lam I and the "Gold Cross of Remem
brance" from the Grand Duke of Baden:
Dr. Anita Xewcomb McGee, who for her
recent services as supervisor of nurses of
the Red Cross of Japan, received from
the Mikado the "Order of the Sacred
Crown": Mrs. Charles Henrotln, of Chi
cago, who in recognition of her work in
connection with the Columbia Exposition
received the "Order of Chefakat" from
the Sultan of Turkey, and Br. Anna Tol
man Smith, of the Bureau of Education,
who was recently made an "officer de
l'instruction publique" by the government
of France.
In recent months many decorations
have been received also by American men
not connected with the Government. The
decoration of our diplomats, naval and
military officers la now rather an old
stoiy and the compliment is generally
purely Impersonal, being aimed at our
Government rather than the favored citi
zen. Not so, however. In the case of the
hrotbem Orville and Wilbur Wright, who
have, recently received the Lgion of
Honor from France.
J. P. Morgan Honored by Kaiser.
j. p. Morgan is one of the latest of
our .citizens to receive .royal honors. The
other day he received the autograph por
trait of the Kaiser, sent to him in recog
nition of his good offices In connection
with the exhibition of German contem
porary art, recently held at the Metro
politan Museum of Art. of which the
great financier Is president.
The commander's cross of the Order of
tho Crown of Prussia was at the same
tlm conferred upon Sir Caspar Purden
Clarke, director of the museum, and to
Hugo Relsinger of his staff, while the
officers' cross of the Order of the Red
igle was conferred upon Edward Robin
son, the assistant director. Sir
Caspar, the director, Is an English
man but Mr. Robinson is a native of
Boston, where he was director of the
Museum of Fine Arts before coming, in
1S". to the Metropolitan Museum. After
mushing at Harvard he studied five years
abroad and became an authority on the
archeology and sculpture of the Greeks
and Romans. Ho personally selected the
collection of classic caMs displayed In
the Metropolitan as well as for the art
museums of Norwich and Springfield.
The Ordr of the Red Eagle, now con
ferred upon him. Is over two centuries
old. having been founded In 170S by
ilorge- William. Prince of Anspach and
could Instruct Its brokers to call upon
Mr. Gould's brokers to return the stock,
and Mr. Gould would be obliged to settle
on such terms as the pool might see fit
to make.
This was the situation when one day a
messenger from Mr. Keene appeared in
Mr. Gould's office with a proposal to con
sider terms. Mr. Gould had been expect
ing the overture. His answer was ready.
He would not settle; he not only would
not settle, but he proposed at once to take
legal steps against the members of the
pool. Keene. Cammack. Woerishoffer,
Smith, et al., on the ground of conspir
acy. It was true that they had got him
cornered In Western Union, but in order
to do so he asserted that they had em
ployed three of his confidential brokers
to buy through them the stock that they
sold for him. which was a transaction of
fensive to the rules of the game. That
was all he had to say to Mr. Keene. and
he desired no further parley.
In a very short time Mr. Keene's mes
senger returned. Mr. Keene was aston
ished and chagrined. He and his asso
ciates personally had been in ignorance
of the fact that the brokers employed by
the pool to buy Western Union were the
confidential brokers through whom Mr.
Gould had been selling the stock. He.
Keene. considered Mr. Gould's position
well taken, legally and morally, and for
Ills part he desired to beg Mr. Gould's
pardon for having appeared In the busi
ness at all. Would Mr. Gould promise to
take no legal steps until he heard from
Mr. Keene again, which would be by or
before noon of the day following? Mr.
Gould charitably promised to wait. Hardly
was Mr. Keene's messenger forth of the
door when Mr. Gould turned to his active
partner and said: "Go in there and sell
them all the. Western Union they will
take." Mr. Gould's partners were accus
tomed to do his bidding and get his rea
sons afterward. So. although Mr. Gould
having sold more Western Union stock
than there was actually on the market,
confessed himself cornered, his partner
went quietly to the floor of the stock ex
change to "sell them all they would take."
Mr. Gould reasoned in this way: Keene
was a shrewd fellow. His protestations
were a play for time. Why should he
wish Mr. Gould to delay taking the action
,:
1 1 i-S
-:-
Ife
V VmV A v
Bayreuth, and we. known as the Order
de la Sincerite until VsH. when renamed
the Brandenburg Red Eagle by the mar
grave, George Frederick Charles. It was
first limited to 3U members, who had to
show noble descent on both sidee, for
eight generations and it is still the sec
ond order of the realm. The insignia,
given to Mr. Robinson Is a Maltese cross
with a red eagle in the center. The
Order of the Crown of Prussia, conferred
upon Director Clarke and Mr. Relsinger,
was founded by Emperor William I, at
his coronation In 1M1. The present Kaiser
himself has a penchant for decorations
and It is estimated that 323 have been
conferred upon him to date.
Cardinal Gibbons recently was made a
threatened? Why, In order that he might
have time to sell out his shares In tiie
pool's holdings of Western Union stock.
Instead of going personally into the
Western Union, crowd. Mr. Gould's part
ner picked up half a dozen brokers and
gave them orders to sell, he standing in
the background to keep them going. In
the Western Union crowd stood the pool's
principal broker with an unlimited order
to buy that is, an order to buy all the
Western Union stock that might come
upon the market. This Is the only record
ed instance of two unlimited orders meet
ing in the open stock market. While the
brokers taking orders from Gould's part
ner were selling heavily, other brokers
unexpectedly appeared offering stock for
sale. This was Keene's stock. When
the pool's broker had taken 40.000 shares
of stock and saw that it was still coming,
he knew that something had gone wrong
and ran off the floor to communicate with
his principals the pool members. After
that it was each man for himself, and the
market for Western Union stock col
lapsed. The pool that had thwarted him was
broken up, and he was out of the cor
ner, but Mr. Gould's real object had
hardly begun to be attained. He was
still heavily short of Western Union
stock, and although, with the market in
the condition in which It was left by the
precipitate retreat of the enemy, all of
Mr. Gould's short stock might be covered
at a profit, control of the Western Union
lay away beyond. He sent for Mr. Keene
and proposed to him that they go In to
gether for a bear campaign against the
stock. The price was already low, but
with the advantage Just gained it could
be put much lower. Mr. Keene readily
assented, and- whereas before they were
on opposite sides of the stock, they were
now united against It.
One day they both stood absently re
garding the ticker. Western Union was
selling low in the SOs. There was a lull
In its activity. In his most peculiar and
Inscrutable manner. Gould said: "Mr.
Keene. I believe Western Union is cheap."
Keene snorted. They would put it to 20.
lie said. The thought that Gould wished
ultimately to buy control of the poop-
Rovury for
r c1ini n lii'rnifiifiii -iffiriii- ?
1 M 2" H
Knight of the Royal Order of the Crown
by King Leopold of Belgium. An Amer
ican more recently knighted into this or
der within the past few weeks is
another resident of Baltimore, James
Gustavus W'hitely, who for the past few
years has served the Belgian King as
consul-general of the Kongo Free State,
which official connection recently ended
when the vast Kongo territory passed
from the hands of Leopold into the im-
erty had' never entered his imagination.
With nothing more said between them,
Mr. Gould left Keene at the ticker and
said to his partner. "Buy 25.000 Western
Union." The partner went personally to
the floor, gave out his orders to other
brokers, watched until they had bought
20.000 shares and were in a way to get
the rest, and returned to the office where
Keene and Gould still were. Speaking to
his partner so that Keene heard, Mr.
Gould said: "Who seems to be buying all
this Western Union? "His partner named
the brokers who had executed the orders,
adding. "It looks like 25.000." "You gave
out those orders?" "Y'es." said his part
ner. "You see." said Mr. Gould, turning
to Keene, "I have bought 25.000 Western
Union. I shall buy a great deal more. If
you think the stock Is cheap, you are
welcome to your share of this first
25,000."
And tnat Is how Mr. Gould, by ma
nipulation, bought control of the West
ern Union Telegraph Company, which
is In the Gould family still. According
to the Wall-street code of ethics, he
had a perfect right to do it. He used
his own capital in the open stock mar
ket, assumed a great risk and gained
his end. Also, he employed the ma
chinery of the stock exchange to de
ceive the small holders of stock, to
affect their Judgment by mere quota
tions and induce them to part with
what he wanted to buy. "The Stock
yards of New York." by John Parr, in
Everybody's.
An Ancient Mine In Sweden.
London Globe.
At Falun, Sweden, are the headquarters
of a mining company with a history so
remote that the date of Its origin cannot
be definitely fixed. An original purchase
deed dated in the year 12S8 has to do
with a sale of stock of the present com
pany, and charters given by King Mag
nus of Sweden and Norway are dated
February 24, 1347. At that time the rights
granted by King Magnus" predecessors
were referred to as very old. The ord
inal business was the manufacture of
copper, and the mine at Falun, "Stora
Koparberget" (the great copper moun
tain), has been continuously worked for
nearly 700 years. In this time it has
yielded about 5o0.0"0 tons of eopper, 15.5
tons of silver, and 1.2 tons of gold, the
whole representing a value of LUUMJOO.OUO
kroner, or about i3o.4UO,ajO-
distinguished services in times of pcacl,
mediate sovereignty of Belgium itself.
Mr. Whitely first took a hand in inter
national affairs in the year of the Span
ish War, when President McKinley sent
him as his unofficial representative to
the meeting of the international con
gress of diplomatic history at The Hague,
of which he became vice-president. Later
he represented us as a delegate to the
international congress of comparative
hiMory. at Paris, and he was a mem
Autobiography of a Shade Tree
Reflections Aroused by the Approach of Destruction.
THIS fresh Summer morning' marks
a very Important period in my ex
. istence. My material organization
is in the throes of complete dissolution.
Growing in the little street lawn in front
of the Roberts, on North Illinois street,
I for years lived a happy and, I believe,
a useful life. But the time came when
I begran to feel my limitations and chafed
thereat. The walks and street and curb
were not conducive to my further ex
pansion. My little roots tried hard to
penetrate their prison walls, but to no
avail. I longed for my freedom I must
progress and develop; if not in this form,
then in another. As the hatching chick
nnds it must burst and discard its pro
tecting shell or perish in Its retention; as
the caterpillar must eat through and for
sake its chrysalis before it can take on
the beautiful wings of the butterfly and.
with graceful poise, delight the child
and claim the admiration of the adult;
as man himself, having reached limita
tions that circumscribe and prevent fur
ther unfoldment in bis present sphere,
withdraws from his material body to
emerge on a plane of increased oppor
tunities for the development which all
life craves: so I, in my tree life, realized
that the time had come for me to cast
aside my moorings and pass on to greater
possibilities. I withdrew some time ago,
and my poor, leafless body was not
deemed ornamental, so was ordered
down.
This morning laborers came with horse
and wagon, boy and ax, and soon it was
apparent that the time was at hand when
the once proud and lofty form should fall
before the woodman's stroke. The trunk
was severed and, groaning and protest
ing, it fell without accident, guided by a
rope held in three pairs of careful hands.
Several times approaching street cars
stopped, thinking it was coming; but it
was loath to yield its commanding posi
tion. Passersby, a mule team, a little
one-horse wagon, even to the gusty
automobile, watched, then hastened past
or crossed to the other side.
When finally my poor discarded,, help
less body lay stretched upon the smooth
paved street which it had long protected
from scorching rays of Summer sun,
from raim and sleet and etonn, there was
f - i V " & "F' - - I -A
I Vvk : J
ber of the international committee which
organized it. King Leopold made him
consul of the Kongo Free State in 1!W
and consul-general in 1905.
Three Journalists Decorated.
American Journalism has come in for a
generous share of this kind of reward
from royalty within reecent months. In
fact, among Americans In civil 'life more
journalists than men of any other pro
fession have been decorated.
The mikado recently conferred the Or
der of the Rising Sun upon Charles Au
gustus Boyrrton, who has been superin
tendent of the southern division of the
Associated Press for the past 13 years,
and who for a quarter of a century be
fore that had been New York agent of
the Western Associated Press. This vet
eran journalist, who has handled every
great news event of the past 40 years,
first got printer's ink upon his fingers
back in Civil War times, when he be
came assistant to his father, the Rev.
Charles Boynton, editor of the Christian
Nation, Cincinnati. During his service
in Washington he has had intimate rela
tions with the makers of our history and
has been the safe repository of the most
important Government secrets. During
the South African War the British em
bassy relied upon him for its news from
the front, as did the Russian embassy
and Japanese legation during the Russo
Japanese War.
Another American journalist decorat
ed by the Mikado in recent weeks is
Hamilton Holt, managing editor of the
Independent. Mr. Holt, after going
through Yale, had just finished a post
graduate course at Columbia and was
only 25 when he succeeded to the man
aging editorship of this magazine, in
1897. since when he has been a factor
In the great state,- national and inter
national organizations for the promo
tion of peace between nations and the
arbitration of industrial disputes. But
what has led more directly to his deco
ration by the Mikado has been his
activity as a member of the Japan So
ciety of New York. He is given the
Order of the Sacred Treasure.
Gets "the Crown of Prussia."
The Kaiser some months ago con
ferred the Order of the Crown of Prus
sia upon William Charles Iteick, the
well-known Journalist, who is now one
of the principal owners of the Phila
delphia Ledger and New York Times
and who, like Mr. Holt, distinguished
himself for his precocity in the jour
nalistic field. Starting as a Philadel
phia reporter when but 19. he had be
a scurrying to and fro In preparfng for
its removal from the obstructed way.
Quickly the brittle limbs were sundered,
proudly in sun-tanned hands they were
borne high aloft by the barefoot boy in
little cap, who piled them into the wagon.
Patiently through it all stood the well
fed white horse, wearing harness be
decked with yellow ribbons the work of
loving hands in appreciation of faithful
services. When the little wagon had
ben filled one of the men mounted as
driver.
The .little cap could be seen marking
the topmost point of the load (the bare
feet at last out of sight). The lines were
taken up, and then, as they moved from
view, I experienced an odd sensation my
material identity is gone forever, its
parts are separated, the branches being
hauled away yonder, the trunk lying here
to be still further mutilated by the chop
pers ax; the pieces and fragments will
never again be united as before. That
great agent of chance, fire, will set free
the carbon, the hydrogen, the oxygen;
they will group in new combinations,
and, in different forms and under dif
ferent circumstances, they will continue
through all time their ceaseless round of
activity. The ashes may be taken up in
some plant's life; the hydrogen, hidden
away in cooling drafts of matter, may
quench the thirst of some noble animal
a dog, a cow, mayhap the well-kept white
horse wearing the yellow ribbons; the
oxygen may be breathed by a human
being, purifying the blood and inspiring
to the performance of unselfish deeds.
The fire that feeds upon these ele
ments may cook a dinner for the bare
foot, sun-tanned boy, for the sturdy la
borer who swung the ax, for the infant
sister, for an invalid mother. I would
that it reach some humble home and
serve where luxuries are unknown, a
blessing to the helpless victims of shame
ful discrimination.
-
And now at the last a reverie sweeps
over me, and many incidents pass in re
view. In the hurry of this rapid breaking
up of former ties, I have time to mention
in a general way only a few of my ex
periences. In my role of friend to all the
world, many have been the confidences
shared with men. Upon those twigs now j
removed little birds perched, and, in the j
come editor of the London and Paris
editions of the N;w York Herald when
but 24 anil city editor of the home edition
when 25. While still In his thirties ho be
came president of the Herald Company.
Two years ago he became president of
the Philadelphia Public Ledger Company.
George Tucker and Nathan Straus.
The "commandatore's" degree of the
Order of the Crown of Italy ha-s been
received from King Victor Emmanuel by
Henry St. George Tucker, of Staunton,
Va., who was in Congress for eight terms
until succeeding his father as professor
at Washington and Lee University, where
he afterward became dean of the law
school. His decoration is the result of
his international relations as president of
the Jamestown Exposition. The order
conferred upon him "was founded in 38'JS.
The Grand Duke of Baden has recently
conferred not only a decorated but a
life-size portrait of the late grand duke
upon Nathan Straus, the millionaire mer
chant of New York and Brooklyn, who
is a brother of Oscar Straus, our newly
selected Ambassador to Constantinople.
Mr. Straus is well known for his pure
milk charities in Greater New " York,
where for the past 20 years he has main
tained at his own expense a system of
distributing sterilized milk to the poor
a system which the statistics of the
health department show to have saved
many thousands of infants' lives. But it
Is not generally known that Mr. Straus
has instituted the same charity in Ger
many. It is this charity in his natlva
empire which has led to his decoration.
First American Negro Decorated.
The first American negro to be. dec
orated by a foreign government is Booker
Taliaferro Washington, the ex-slave, who
as president of the Tuskegee Institute
has made himself the .leader of his raca
in this country. Liberia has conferred
upon him the Order of African Redemp
tion, which, according to our minister
to Monrovia, the Liberian government
confers with care, and which has never
before been given to an American citizen.
It is given to the negro educator as a
reward for interesting the State Depart
ment in the protection of Liberia from
the threatened encroachments of Euro
pean powers. The only other negro gov
ernment which is known to have ever
decorated an American is Ethiopia, whose
emperor. Menelik. conferred the Order
of the Star of Ethiopia upon 19 of our
citizens comprisirg the famous Skinner
expedition to Addis Ababa a few years
aKO.
Washington. D. C. July 19.
sweetpst df songs, told of the joy of liv
ingtold It because they must, because It
was their mission herp; naught else could
they do. Into my shade on the lawn
were often drawn the torn and mangled
forms of faithful dogs caught in accident
ne ar by.
rnderneath my branches little chil
dren played: and, on that spot of shade
and grass, as their tiny foot touched
mother earth, their lives for the time be
ing drew in new strength and were re
adjusted to the harmony of the all-life of
the universe. Frequently the hearse
passed by, and thn I always whispered
soft and low to those sad hearts who
followed. "Only changed. not gone"
sometimes I thought I saw a sign of un
derstanding beckoned back to me. Then
at times I looked upon more cheerful
groups the bridal party beholding only
the roseate dawn. Others of my friends
in the evening stood within my shadow.
Perhaps it was a breach of etiquette,
but to them I always listened such is
the enchanting power of harmony.
Others came from whom I wished to tlce.
The toiifs of diword. the harsh and un
kind words, the bitter, poisoning thoughts
that emanated all filled me with regret
that I was anchored there. And yet an
other class that fTtcn sought my aid
came in the .very early hours of morn
ing, stumbling, muttering, reeling. Thse
friends of mine always stopped and
learned against my trunk, as though
they fancied strength went out from me
to them. Many are the vows 'I've over
heard made by these unstable ones. With
aching head and unsteady gait, thinking
of home ones, yet dreading to meet them
while in that condition, they appeared
to realize that my leaves turned not aside
from them, and that the birds on my
branches did not cea.se singing because
they were there. "They too," I thought,
"belong here they arc a part of the all."
The woodman's ctroke, the flying chips,
arouse me from my dream. Before me
lies the outstretched trunk, but I, the
life that once dwelt 'here, must cease to
linger 'With the . past. Back upon tho
bosom of the earth, nature's great clearing-house,
the matter in which I once
manifested will repose unt.i stirred again
to visible activity by life, the great trans
former. I myself await the guiding im
pulse that sways tho univertc
4
r