VIII.
TELEGRAM.
New York, April 13, 1892.
The young person’s paternal is here and in great luck again. He will wire funds to-day in your care, to make sure of not falling into wrong hands. Deliver message to person yourself, to avoid mistake. Look sharp. Letter by first mail explains all. Address Hoffman House.
Fitz-Mac.
IX.
Hoffman House,
New York, April 13.
Dear Warman:—The most surprising thing in life is the number of surprises one encounters. Whom should I meet at breakfast here this morning, but Tom Parsons—no longer the broken and rejected man I have pictured to you, but flushed with success and swimming on top of Hope’s effulgent tide.
Some New York brokers who had known him in better days and who had confidence in his sagacity and nerve desiring to inaugurate a big grain deal in Chicago, sent for him to come and steer the game. He was as cool to their propositions as if he had had a million to put in, and demanded a good percentage of the profits. They agreed to his terms. He has stood behind the curtain here for three weeks, and in the name of a dealer here not supposed to be strong, has engineered the corner and led the Chicago fellows into the net. There was a great deal of money up, and the weak firm which the Chicago operators expected to cinch proved to be only a stool-pigeon, for a very strong syndicate.
They settled yesterday, and Tom’s share of the profits is a little over a hundred thousand. What a freak of fortune! Though outwardly perfectly cool, I could see that Parsons is deeply affected by this turn of the tide, which puts him on his feet again. It is nothing but gambling after all, and his mind is flushed and warped by the sudden success. He is full of great projects to capture millions again. No doubt the success of this deal gives him a big pull here, and he is such a bold and experienced operator that no one can say what may not happen. But this insatiate passion for high and reckless play has injured him, mentally and morally. He confessed to me after we went to his room, that he had not once thought of his family during the three weeks he has been here,—that is, not of their condition and their needs. Think of that, in the most tender of husbands, the most careful of fathers! I put his daughter’s position at him flat-footed; but it didn’t alarm him a bit. “I’ll trust that girl,” he said, “to take care of herself anywhere on top of earth or in the mines under the earth.”