so the fabulous damosel of the dirty face, rescued from the goat herds who had found and reared her, was clothed in what she should wear, christened in due manner, annointed in the name of order, and presented to the american people. or, that is to say, the steel industry was bought from the barbars and sold to the public.
auspicated by bullguard and company, manipulated by sabath, advertised by common wonder, the shares of the biggest trust in the world were launched on the new york stock exchange. popular imagination, prepared in suspense, delivered itself headlong to the important task of buying them. a craze to exchange money for steel shares swept the country. that seemed to be only what people got up every morning to do. such manias, like panics inverted, have often occurred. they have a large displacement in the literature of popular delusions. this one, although of a true type and spontaneous, was fomented in an extraordinary manner by sabath, who for the first time in his life had all the power and sanction of wall street behind him. the hand of the ishmaelite that everyone feared now strummed the official lyre and the tune it played untied a million purse strings.
the steel people removed their hats and bowed.
[346]
“we were amateurs,” they admitted.
for weeks and weeks they sat behind piles of steel engraved certificates, fresh from the printer, and signed their names until they were weary of making pen strokes at ten thousand dollars each. before the ink of their signatures was dry the certificates were cast upon the market to be converted into cash,—the market sabath made. there seemed no bottom or end to it. the capacity of that market was unlimited. the public’s power to buy was greater than anybody knew.
when it was over, when sabath’s sweet melody ceased, when the public owned the steel industry and the barbars were out, then steel shares began to fall. for several years they fell, disastrously, and the public howled with rage. the trust went near the rocks.
all who had had any part in the making of it faced a storm of wild opprobrium. there is much to be said in reproach. however, given the problem as it was, how else could anyone have solved it? the trust got by the rocks. the steel industry was stabilized. and ultimately the shares were worth much more than the public originally paid for them.
this eventuality few of the great steel barbars lived to witness. a little touched with madness anyhow, as heroic stature is, the wall street harvest finished them. they were of a sudden nabobs with nothing on earth to do. their wealth had been in mills and mines and ships, and business was a very jealous mistress. now it was in money and they were free.
in the first place they didn’t know what to do with[347] the money itself. some of them bought banks of their own to keep it in. then what could they spend it for? what could they invest it in? the only thing they knew was steel and they were out of that. some of them began to buy railroads. they would say: “this looks like a pretty good railroad. let’s buy that.” and they would buy it offhand in the stock market. then wall street, controlling railroads without owning them, was struck with a new terror. it wasn’t safe to leave control of a railroad lying around loose. there was no telling what these men would do next with their money. they had got control of several great banks and railroads before anyone knew what they were doing.
but after they had invested their money in banks and railroads they still had nothing really to do. they built themselves castles, in some cases two or three each, and seldom if ever lived in them because they were so lonesome. one transplanted a full grown forest and it died; he did it again with like result, and a third time, and then he was weary. he never went back to see. they got rid of their old wives and bought new and more expensive ones. even that made no perceptible hole in their wealth. they tried horses and art and swamped everything they touched. gambling they forgot. one developed a peacock madness, never wore the same garments more than an hour; his dressing room resembled a clothing store, with hundreds of suits lying on long tables in pressed piles. one had a phantasy for living out the myth of pan and ceased to be spoken of anywhere. one travelled ceaselessly and[348] carried with him a private orchestra that played him awake and attended his bath. he died presently under the delusion that he had lost all his money and all his friends, which was only half true.
they disappeared.
blasted prodigies!
children of the steel age, overwhelmed in its cinders.
