They used to accuse him of being nothing but a gambler, but he had real ability and a strongly developed aptitude for the speculative game. At the same time his reputed indifference to highbrow pursuits made him the hero of numberless anecdotes. One of the most highly circulated of the yarns was that Joshua was a guest at what he called a swell dinner and by some oversight of the hostess several of the other guests began to discuss literature before they could be stopped. A girl who sat next to Josh and had not heard him use his mouth except for masticating purposes, turned to him and looking anxious to hear the great financier’s opinion asked him, “Oh, Mr. Wolff, what do you think of Balzac?” Josh politely ceased to masticate, swallowed and answered, “I never trade in them Curb stocks!” Such were the three largest individual holders of Consolidated Stove. When they came over to see me I told them that if they formed a syndicate to put up some cash and gave me a call on their stock at a little above the market I would do what I could to make a market. They promptly asked me how much money would be required. I answered, “You’ve had that stock a long time and you can’t do a thing with it. Between the three of you you’ve got two hundred thousand shares, and you know very well that you haven’t the slightest chance of getting rid of it unless you make a market for it. It’s got be some market to absorb what you’ve got to give it, and it will be wise to have enough cash to pay for whatever stock it may be necessary to buy at first. It’s no use to begin and then have to stop because there isn’t enough money. I suggest that you form a syndicate and raise six millions in cash. Then give the syndicate a call on your two hundred thousand shares at 40 and put all your stock in escrow. If everything goes well you chaps will get rid of your dead pet and the syndicate will make some money.” As I told you before, there had been all sorts of rumours about my stock-market winnings. I suppose that helped, for nothing succeeds like success. At all events, I didn’t have to do much explaining to these chaps. They knew exactly how far they’d get if they tried to play a lone hand. They thought mine was a good plan. When they went away they said they would form the syndicate at once.