"What I'm telling you is the
story that Stagg told me," said he. "And of course you've got to
make allowances. He said he had no idea of what Dan Waterman had
been planning, but I fancy that was a lie. Harrison of Pittsburg had
been threatening to build a railroad of his own, and take away his
business from Waterman's roads, and so there was nothing for
Waterman to do but buy him out at three times what his mills were
worth. He took the mills that Stagg had bought at the same time.
Stagg had paid two or three prices, and Waterman paid him a couple
of prices more, and then he passed them on to the American people
for a couple of prices more than that."
Gamble paused. "That's where they get these fortunes," he added,
waving his fat little hand. "Sometimes it makes a fellow laugh to
think of it. Every concern they bought was overcapitalised to begin
with; I doubt if two hundred million dollars' worth of honest
dollars was ever put into the Steel Trust properties, and they
capitalised it at a billion, and now they've raised it to a billion
and a half! The men who pulled it off made hundreds of millions, and
the poor public that bought the common stock saw it go down to six!
They gave old Harrison a four-hundred-million-dollar mortgage on the
property, and he sits back and grins, and wonders why a man can't
die poor!"
Gamble's car was opposite one of the clubs.
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