Capitalists and financiers -- Fiction; Psychological fiction
Since it is the privilege of the lawyer for the defense to address the
jury first, Steger bowed politely to his colleague and came forward.
Putting his hands on the jury-box rail, he began in a very quiet,
modest, but impressive way:
“Gentlemen of the jury, my client, Mr. Frank Algernon Cowperwood, a
well-known banker and financier of this city, doing business in Third
Street, is charged by the State of Pennsylvania, represented by the
district attorney of this district, with fraudulently transferring from
the treasury of the city of Philadelphia to his own purse the sum of
sixty thousand dollars, in the form of a check made out to his order,
dated October 9, 1871, and by him received from one Albert Stires, the
private secretary and head bookkeeper of the treasurer of this city, at
the time in question. Now, gentlemen, what are the facts in this
connection? You have heard the various witnesses and know the general
outlines of the story. Take the testimony of George W. Stener, to begin
with. He tells you that sometime back in the year 1866 he was greatly
in need of some one, some banker or broker, who would tell him how to
bring city loan, which was selling very low at the time, to par—who
would not only tell him this, but proceed to demonstrate that his
knowledge was accurate by doing it. Mr. Stener was an inexperienced man
at the time in the matter of finance. Mr. Cowperwood was an active
young man with an enviable record as a broker and a trader on ’change.
He proceeded to demonstrate to Mr. Stener not only in theory, but in
fact, how this thing of bringing city loan to par could be done. He
made an arrangement at that time with Mr. Stener, the details of which
you have heard from Mr. Stener himself, the result of which was that a
large amount of city loan was turned over to Mr. Cowperwood by Mr.
Stener for sale, and by adroit manipulation—methods of buying and
selling which need not be gone into here, but which are perfectly sane
and legitimate in the world in which Mr. Cowperwood operated, did bring
that loan to par, and kept it there year after year as you have all
heard here testified to.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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