Nor was Mr. Barriscale entirely satisfied with the result of his interview. As he thought the matter over later, in his office, it occurred to him that his proposal should have been accepted at once by the company commander. To refer the offer to the enlisted men for their approval might imply that there was a question about the acceptability of his gift, and this was not a pleasing thought to him. It was inconceivable that a public donation from Benjamin Barriscale should be looked at askance by the donees. But the situation annoyed him to such an extent that he was on the point of calling up Captain Murray by telephone and withdrawing his offer, and doubtless he would have done so had he not been at that moment interrupted by a business call of importance. Later in the day, however, when his mind returned to the topic, his resolution had stiffened, and he decided to see the matter through, regardless of the manner of reception of his offer. He had made the proposition, he would stand by his guns. It was not long, therefore, before he sent to Captain Murray the written plan for his proposed prize donation. The captain sent it up to regimental headquarters and asked for instructions. In due time he was advised that there was nothing in the regulations to prevent the acceptance of the gift, and that so long as it proceeded from an individual, and not from a firm or corporation employing workmen, there would appear to be nothing in military ethics adverse to the idea of acceptance. In short, it was a matter for the discretion of the company commander, or for the decision of his enlisted men if he chose to refer the question to them. Captain Murray was in a quandary. He feared to throw the question of acceptance open to his men lest the proposed prize should become an apple of discord. He hesitated to decide the matter himself, lest he should be considered too autocratic. Moreover, while he felt that the company could not afford to reject a gift offered by a man of Mr. Barriscale’s prominence and peculiarity, he well knew that the spirit in which the offer had been made was not an entirely disinterested one, and that if the gift were accepted the public would draw its own conclusions. Many times he heartily wished that the fertile brain of the millionaire manufacturer had never conceived the idea. Not so Mr. Barriscale. Having recovered from the slight shock which Captain Murray’s hesitancy had given him, the more he thought about his proposition the more pleased he was with his altruistic plan. He mentioned the matter to his friends and sought their approval, which he readily obtained; and before the company commander had heard from headquarters, the subject of the proposed gift had become a town topic. In the next issue of Donatello’s weekly journal, _The Disinherited_, there appeared a brief but biting editorial headed: “Is it an Attempt to Bribe the Military?” It ran as follows: