McCurdy urged me to try and consolidate the Title Guarantee & Trust Company and the Lawyers’ Title Company, as this would have given him a larger interest in the new company than the Equitable Life possessed. As the leading spirits in neither company were very keen about it, it failed of accomplishment; thereafter we consummated the increase of the stock of the Lawyers’ Mortgage Company from $300,000 to $1,000,000. I personally agreed to buy from the company 5,500 shares of an increase of 7,000 shares of the stock at $125. The Equitable Life interests received 1,500, and 1,000 shares went to the Mutual Life interests. It was the distribution of these shares and the method in which they were finally purchased by the respective companies that were material factors in the condemnation of Messrs. McCurdy and Hyde by the Armstrong Committee, but our company made excellent connections with both the Lawyers’ Title and the Lawyers’ Mortgage companies, and made very substantial profits in later on disposing of the stock. After these two connections had been made, Grant and I felt that to complete our circle we would also require a construction company. The Fuller Company had made a great success in the West and was invading the East. Mayor Grant was very much impressed with the scheme, but not so Olcott, Brady, and Crimmins, who had serious objections to a contracting company. Before abandoning the scheme, however, we submitted it to Mr. James Stillman. He listened attentively, and then told us that if we adhered to it, notwithstanding the opposition of Olcott, Brady, and Crimmins, he would join us, with the distinct condition, however, that he was not to dispose of any of the stock, or be asked to interest any one in the enterprise. But he agreed that, as his contribution to the matter, he would finance Grant and myself by loaning us the full amount that was required at a very reasonable rate of interest, and carry us for the life of the transaction. A few days afterward Stillman sent for me and asked me how much of the preferred stock we had actually sold. When I told him the amount, he said: “Do not sell any more. As I was bicycling up Park Avenue yesterday, I was constantly thinking of Mr. Black’s statement, that New York had to be rebuilt, and the more I looked around me, the more convinced I became that he was right. We ought to secure a substantial share of the work at a profitable commission,” he said, “and therefore we ought not to sell any more of the preferred stock.”