President Roberts was amazed and not a little discomfited by the easy assurance of Mr. Garrett. As soon as the exultant Baltimore and Ohio man had gone there was a conference between President Roberts and Mr. Cassatt.
“Garrett says they’ve got the P. W. & B.,” said Mr. Roberts.
“Oh, no, they haven’t,” replied the general manager.
That night there was a meeting of Pennsylvania Railroad directors in New York. Mr. Cassatt was the presiding genius. He told them where he could lay his hands on a block of P. W. & B. stock that would put the control forever in the hands of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Before the directors rose from their chairs a check was drawn for $14,949,052.20. It hangs in a frame now on the walls of the treasury of the Pennsylvania Railroad, canceled to show that the money was there waiting when it was presented. At the time it was written, it was the largest check ever recorded. The Garretts were completely routed. They couldn’t understand how they had come to overlook that block of stock, and they were equally at a loss to know how Cassatt had discovered it and negotiated the purchase over night.
(2285)
Ownership Settled by Sheep—See [Testimony, a Sheep’s].
OWNERSHIP, THE SOUL’S
Thomas Traherne, a poet whose works became known only after his death, wrote this verse:
My infancy no sooner opes its eyes
But straight the spacious earth