Personal.
Gainesville, Fla., February 21, 1905.
Mr. Thomas W. Lawson, Boston, Mass.
Dear Sir: Pardon my "buttin' in"—seems I must say something.
If what Donohoe says about your Trinity Copper Company is true, it would seem you ought to stop throwing mud at the Standard Oil crowd, for you are no better than are they, and they are known thieves and robbers. While you may be telling the truth about the other fellow, yet the fact of your telling it does not set well on the stomach of those who read both sides of the story. Seems to me it's "dog eat dog" until every one is disgusted.
Why don't you come down to business and give the readers of Everybody's something wholesome to digest and plenty of it? The way it comes now, we are over our hunger before the next issue shows up, and, in the meantime, your friend has converted many to the thought that you are worse than the Standard Oil crowd.
Won't you please answer, in the next issue of Everybody's, if you made your money—your fortune, HONESTLY, or did you "do others" for fear they would "do you"? I am inclined to think you are as big a "grafter" as ever came down the pike, even though you may be telling on the other fellow—turning State's evidence.
Yours truly,
——
You ask why I do not get down to business. You won't mind my telling you the principal reason is that it is I who am writing "Frenzied Finance," not you nor any of your kind, and that I propose to decide when it is time to get down to business. If in the meantime there is any one else who can do the job I have cut out better than I, why, none will be better pleased than myself. Indeed, I will gladly contribute as a reward to my successor double the many thousands of dollars I am paying each month to get this work of mine properly before the people.