Capitalists and financiers -- Fiction; Psychological fiction
He then put on Arthur Rivers, who had acted for Cowperwood on ’change
as special agent during the panic, to testify to the large quantities
of city loan he had purchased to stay the market; and then after him,
Cowperwood’s brothers, Edward and Joseph, who testified to instructions
received from Rivers as to buying and selling city loan on that
occasion—principally buying.
The next witness was President W. C. Davison of the Girard National
Bank. He was a large man physically, not so round of body as full and
broad. His shoulders and chest were ample. He had a big blond head,
with an ample breadth of forehead, which was high and sane-looking. He
had a thick, squat nose, which, however, was forceful, and thin, firm,
even lips. There was the faintest touch of cynical humor in his hard
blue eyes at times; but mostly he was friendly, alert, placid-looking,
without seeming in the least sentimental or even kindly. His business,
as one could see plainly, was to insist on hard financial facts, and
one could see also how he would naturally be drawn to Frank Algernon
Cowperwood without being mentally dominated or upset by him. As he took
the chair very quietly, and yet one might say significantly, it was
obvious that he felt that this sort of legal-financial palaver was
above the average man and beneath the dignity of a true financier—in
other words, a bother. The drowsy Sparkheaver holding up a Bible beside
him for him to swear by might as well have been a block of wood. His
oath was a personal matter with him. It was good business to tell the
truth at times. His testimony was very direct and very simple.
He had known Mr. Frank Algernon Cowperwood for nearly ten years. He had
done business with or through him nearly all of that time. He knew
nothing of his personal relations with Mr. Stener, and did not know Mr.
Stener personally. As for the particular check of sixty thousand
dollars—yes, he had seen it before. It had come into the bank on
October 10th along with other collateral to offset an overdraft on the
part of Cowperwood & Co. It was placed to the credit of Cowperwood &
Co. on the books of the bank, and the bank secured the cash through the
clearing-house. No money was drawn out of the bank by Cowperwood & Co.
after that to create an overdraft. The bank’s account with Cowperwood
was squared.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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